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Hi everyone, I have been playing almost exclusively warzone solos for a while now and I've noticed there is actually not much in the way of good strategy guides just for solos. I am a bit above average (KD 1.24) but far from the best player around, nevertheless I believe I have a great deal of experience in fine-tuning different solo strategies and seeing what works and what doesn't. In this post I will go through my process of what to do, when to do it, why I'm doing it and how I go about doing it. Gun-skill and situational awareness are two prerequisites that should be nailed down before thinking about macro-strategy, and can only be learnt by practice.
Note that the strategy below is probably not the best one for overall win-rate. That one would probably the do-10-recons-and-camp-the-final-circle strategy but if you like to play more aggressively getting lots of kills and dislike the camping playstyle, read on.
Step 1 - The Drop
The very first step to a successful game is a good drop. As with many things, you should be able to drop anywhere and make it work, so this is mostly about efficiently getting kitted up as soon as possible so you a) don't get into a position where you are encountering loaded-out players while you're stuck with ground loot and b) can get your loadout as soon as possible and start racking up kills on players that haven't yet got theirs.
Dropping locations vary on a scale of hot (many players landing in a condensed location) to cold (no other players landing there). The heat of a particular drop location depends on the following:

1. Relative position to the flight path. Almost without fail the hottest drop locations are immediately below the point where the plane enters the map. These are the players who are in a mad rush to start looting and don't want to waste any time in the air. The middle of the plane's flight path is still pretty hot for much the same reason, just not so much as the beginning or end. The end point of the flight path is hot because this is where the AFK players get kicked out. Usually there are about five AFK players but also another five who want to grab some easy kills on them. Conversely, the longer the transverse distance from the flight path the colder it gets because it takes longer to get to, risks being shot while parachuting and is frankly a little bit tedious. That is not to say that it is necessarily a bad thing to do.
2. Relative position to first circle. There does not appear to be much variation in heat within the first circle which is marked on the map - the centre is not particularly hotter than the edges. But the further you get outside the first circle you get the colder it becomes. The reason for this is obvious, you only have a couple of minutes to loot before the gas closes and if you are far outside the circle you will have to race back to safety.
3. Scavenger contracts. These contracts can turn an area from a cold to a hot drop location, simply because most people realise that these are one of the best ways to begin a solo game.
4. High-value locations. These locations will generally always be hot, more or less-so depending on where they are, relative to the flight path and first circle. High-value locations are places which have a lot of valuable loot in a small area and are consequently the quickest way to get decent ground loot and the money for a loadout. Examples include the train, superstore and passcode bunkers.

What is good to keep in mind is that a drop location will be hot for a reason - people want to drop in a certain place because it offers a certain advantage. Equally, a cold location will be cold generally because it offers little advantage. On the other hand, lots of competition in the early game is very risky. Even if you have great gun-skill it is very easy to get third-partied and therefore in half the games you drop hot you will get sent to the gulag within a minute or two. In solos the player count drops from 150 to 120 or less in about a minute - those 30 almost certainly dropped hot and paid for it. Cold drops, while taking longer to reach, will allow you more time to loot in peace and will generally give you enough space to seek out enemies on your own terms. However in the coldest spots you may struggle to find anyone, which isn't very fun at all.
As with most things in life, a compromise is often the best option. You should be able to handle the heat of two or three players dropping within 100m or you, so no need to go colder than that. Go much hotter and it becomes a toss-up if you'll survive into the top 100.
Obviously there's more to it than simply trying to pick a lukewarm drop position. You have to think about what you want to do upon landing. A contract is generally your answer. Bounties, while rewarding, aren't generally the best thing to get straight away. For a start, often your bounty target will still be in the air and will soon be hundreds of meters away. Alternatively they could have had a lucky drop and have found far better weapons than you. There is one situation however where I would recommend bounties straight away, and that is when you are the one who got a lucky drop and you were able to get a very good ground loot weapon very quickly. For example, with the season 6 ground loot origins even if the bounty target hides like a rat upstairs in a building, you can reliably rush them. Time is the great equalizer; after about five minutes you can assume that everyone has a good weapon. Before that time, if you have a powerful ground loot weapon then squeeze as many kills as you can. Recons are only good in my opinion if you go big on recons till the end (as I mentioned above). Supply runs are a bit meh, at the start you want to be focusing on looting items not buying stuff. That leaves us with scavengers.
While I did mention above that these contracts make for pretty hot locations, they do so for good reason. A scavenger contract only takes a minute or so to complete and rewards you with all the plates you'll need, a high chance of rare/legendary weapon and often enough cash to go straight for a loadout. Essentially, they reward you for what you would be doing anyway at this point in the game - looting. Furthermore, in season 6 the drop rate for plates decreased a lot - meaning that generic looting cannot guarantee you will get enough plates as quick as you will need them. With a scavenger, you avoid getting stuck without armour - suffice to say this is not a good position to find yourself.
Since scavengers are hot drops, you'll want to go for one on the colder end of the spectrum so you actually have a chance to reach it first and not die in the process. So long as you pick one that's not under the flight path you should be fine. Also, think contingencies. Think 'what am I going to do if I can't get that contract?'. This is why, ideally, you should go for a spot with a few scavengers in the vicinity so that if one gets taken there will still be others to grab. Ironically these locations are often less hot than places with just one scavenger - in such places there will likely be three or more players all converging on one place. Another tip is that some scavenger icons on the map are hard to see because they are under other icons or place names - many players would have missed those, leaving them all to you!
Alternatively, instead of going for a contract you could drop on the train. The train is pretty much a moving bunker's worth of loot but avoids the risk of getting trapped inside by another player. Admittedly, if the train is close to the flight path it can get really hot and therefore not worth the risk. If it is far away however it is possible to have the whole train to yourself. If you do then you often will get twice the loot of a scavenger contract in a fraction of the time; then jump off the train at a buy station and you could get your loadout within a minute of the drop. Obviously it is a lottery whether other players have the same idea as well and most of the time you will have to fight the other passengers. What's good about the train is that it is easy to bail and escape a bad gunfight if you feel you need to.
An ideal drop that leaves both strategies open is if you aim for a scavenger contract near to the train track and loot until the train approaches. Then you can quickly see if it is unlooted in which case you can jump on and do the honours, if it is currently being looted it is quite easy to kill the looter who, thinking they had the train to themselves, is focusing on looting. If the train has been looted and the looter has skedaddled, no worries! You still have a scavenger contract to keep you busy.
One final thing I will say about dropping is that it is preferable to drop fairly centrally in the first circle. The reason for this is that you'll want to have your free loadout drop deep in the circle which means it will stick around into the mid-late game. You will want this because if and when you get sent to the gulag and return you will want to be able to grab your loadout ASAP. The later in the game it is the harder and more dangerous cash is to find, making raising 10k a tough prospect.
To summarise, drop on a scavenger or the train (ideally both) in a medium-heat location in the centre of the circle.
Step 2 - Early Game (drop -> loadout)
Ok, so you've dropped on your scavenger and have started looting. Your priorities here are as follows:

1. Getting a decent weapon. Doesn't need to be fantastic, just lose your pistol as quick as you can. Even the plain old grey Uzi will serve you well in the early game. As you loot further you can pick up better weapons.
2. Getting plates. The one plate you need to get from your starting two to the full 250 health bar is critical. You don't want to enter any gunfights until you are fully plated - ideally with a few more in the pocket to sustain prolonged intermittent firefights. Don't panic if there aren't any plates around - just focus on completing the scavenger and you'll get all the plates you need.
3. Getting cash. The ultimate aim for early game is saving up the 10k for a loadout. A scavenger won't generally give you enough cash on its own, so as you proceed from box to box make sure you open regular blue boxes en route to try and grab more cash.

Once you've completed the scavenger take a look at your cash stack. If you have 10k, then head to the nearest buy station and grab a loadout marker. If you are short of the 10k, you will need to either loot some more or grab a bounty. I'm partial to a bounty at this point if I have a decent weapon and I'm not in downtown (bounties in downtown are very difficult to pull off). A bounty will give you 6k in addition to whatever the target drops, so if you kill them you will have more than enough for a loadout as well as a self res or UAV.
Buying and grabbing your loadout is one of the most dangerous parts of the early game - the red smoke is difficult to hide and often snipers will wait for you to stand still for half a second while you open the loadout before they dome you. There are however ways to mitigate the danger. One tactic is to run off into the woods or mountains on the edge of the map and drop the marker there. This method is fairly safe (so long as you make sure you're not being followed) but it takes a while to get there, if you're in the centre of the map it can be unfeasible. Another method is to find a building with an accessible roof, clear it of any enemies, and drop your marker on the ground floor. This will both hide most of the smoke and put the loadout on the roof, hopefully avoiding people sneaking up on you while you grab it. Note that this latter method is vulnerable to snipers, so avoid using buildings that are close to even higher buildings (e.g. downtown) and remember to go prone while opening the loadout.
This brings me to the question that is always on the mind of warzone players - what loadout should I get? The only rule I would stick to is to make sure you have the ghost perk. You are playing at a massive strategical disadvantage, especially in mid to late-game, if you don't run ghost. Overkill may be tempting, but at this point you should have a good enough ground loot weapon to keep on hand along with whatever loadout weapon you pick. Even if you don't have anything decent, just go with an all-comers weapon like an assault rifle. Honestly, it's not worth being the one guy that everyone will be making a bee-line too when they start popping UAVs in mid-game.
Since you'll only be getting one primary weapon in your loadout, you ought to pick whatever complements your best current ground loot weapon. As a rule of thumb, you always want something to cover mid-range (assault rifles, long range SMGs, LMGs) and then you can pick a long-range (snipers) or short-range (SMGs, shotguns) weapon depending on where the circle is moving and/or your playstyle. The northern part of the map has a lot of open spaces that reward sniping, while in the more urban areas you will want something to handle close-quarter encounters. Personal preference is of course a major factor - don't pick a sniper if you hate sniping. If you like rushing buildings then don't leave without an MP5 or good shotgun.
In season 6 there are good ground loots weapons in every category. When you head to buy your loadout, have a think of what you want to keep and what you'll want to pick up (make sure to do the thinking before you throw down the loadout marker, you want to pick up the loadout as quick as humanly possible after that). Below is a list of what I would recommend getting depending on what you have on hand, in terms of ground-loot:

• Good ground loot shotgun (silenced origins) -> Assault Rifle loadout
• Good ground loot SMG (silenced MP5, P90s) -> Assault Rifle or Sniper Rifle loadout
• Good ground loot AR (thermal AN94, Grau) -> Shotgun or Sniper Rifle loadout
• Good ground loot sniper rifle (HDR) -> Assault Rifle or long range SMG loadout

The other things to consider are perks, tacticals and lethals. Everyone has their favourites, but for solos I recommend the following:

• Blue perk - EOD is probably the most useful perk here, and most of the time you won't even notice you have it - that's because it's working! Nobody likes dying to explosives. However, in season 6 I would say it is perhaps less vital than before now people aren't lobbing several kilos of C4 around all over the place. The only other one I would consider is Double Time, which is by no means essential but nice to have.
• Red perk - Ghost without a doubt. As explained above.
• Yellow perk - Here you have a lot more comparable choices. I like amped when I run a sniper rifle because I want to be able to quickly pull out an AR or SMG if I miss a shot and start getting beamed. For loadouts and playstyles where I'm rushing buildings then tracker is incredibly useful. With this perk no matter how a player tries to run and hide in a closet you'll track them down with ease. It's also the only thing that will allow you to see sweaty Roze players skulking in a dark corner in their all-black gimp suit. Battle hardened is good if you encounter many players running stuns or flashes, although in solos most people run heartbeat sensors so you won't often have this problem. Some people love spotter, but I can't say I've ever got much out of it.
• Tacticals - As mentioned above, most people run the heartbeat sensor here. While ghost does nullify a lot of its utility, it is still an incredible advantage when you're tracking down a non-ghosted player. What's more, I'll talk more below about hunting for kills using UAVs, but the gist is that you can use an UAV to put yourself in the general area of a target and then pinpoint them with the heartbeat sensor. Just remember that it can only confirm that someone is nearby, not that someone isn't nearby. In other words, don't let it give you a false sense of security. Stuns are the only other tactical I would consider, but that's down to personal playstyle.
• Lethals - Before season 6 I would just write C4 here. Since its nerf however the meta has diversified into thermites, molotovs and semtexes. Each have their particular strengths and weaknesses, take your pick. I would always take one to handle those annoying riot shield users.

Once you have picked up your loadout, remember to pick up whatever ground loot weapon you decided to keep (if any, you may prefer a launcher secondary to handle vehicles) and high-tail it out of the area as quickly as possible. You want to put distance between you and the red smoke which has probably caught the eye of some thirsty players who are now running there trying to catch an easy kill. You could wait and try and kill some of these players, but consider they could be coming from any direction and you will have to keep an eye on 360 degrees of approach.
At some point, 13s before the gas reaches the first circle IIRC, you will get a free loadout. Leave it alone unless you're coming back from the gulag. For one, it will likely be camped and become a deathtrap, secondly you want to leave your future self a lifeline if you go to the gulag and redeploy. Again, this is why it is helpful to be near the centre of the circle when the free loadout spawns so that you can take advantage of it even if you redeploy late-game.
Optional Step 2.5 - Gulag
Fairly often in the early game you will get unlucky or outplayed and get sent to the gulag. It happens to everyone and is far from the end of the game. I would say that at least half of my wins have come after returning from the gulag. I can't tell you how to win the gulag - that comes down mostly to gun-skill and muscle memory. If you lose the gulag, it's not the end of the world, just play again. Now let's say you kick your opponents ass and you redeploy, you should aim straight for the free loadout if it has spawned yet. If not, drop on a scavenger and go through the early-game process of getting plates, weapons, cash etc. Then grab the loadout when it arrives. Doing this is dangerous especially if many players' loadouts drop together, but so is waiting around without your loadout. Either approach as soon as it drops and grab it before people settle in to camp it, or encircle the loadout and clear out potential camping spots before grabbing it.
Optional step 2.6 - Bunkers
If at any point in the game (except perhaps late game) you find a red access card, drop everything and head to the nearest card bunker. There are four I believe; dam, military base, hills and prison. Especially since season 6 these are incredibly valuable. Now there will always be, right at the back of the bunker, a 'super-legendary' item. This could be a loadout drop marker (a.k.a. 10k cash), durable gas mask, advanced UAV, minigun, foresight or juggernaut. All are incredibly useful (except perhaps the minigun) and potentially game-winning, especially the juggernaut and foresight. If you pick up a juggernaut it is very hard to lose in solos. It feels like a cheap win, but a win is a win. Foresight is also incredibly broken, it's gives you the exact position of the final circle including all the circle movement. When I talk about the late-game I emphasise how important circle movement is to victory, and this gives you all that intel on a silver platter. If you fancy a relaxing game it also tells you exactly what house to go and have a nap in until the late game. Even if you get none of these items, the sheer amount of cash you can loot from the bunker can mean you'll never need to worry about money for the rest of the game.
Be careful getting to the bunker though. By all means take a vehicle, just don't park it right outside the door. That's just asking for an uninvited guest to crash the party. Park a hundred meters or so away and take the rest by foot, making sure nobody sees you go in. If you're trapped in there by someone waiting at the door there's no other way out.
Step 3 - Mid game (loadout -> top 20)
Now this is where the fun begins! When you have your loadout you could pick a building and sit in there like a loser. What is much more rewarding is to go out hunting. Players could be anywhere, just wandering around aimlessly is not the key to a high-kill game. You need targets to aim for and approach strategically like a tiger. How can you find targets? You can see players visually and follow them, which is a cheap and effective method but unreliable, furthermore if they have decent situational awareness they will spot you back very soon after you do, leaving a limited time window to attack with the element of surprise.
Another way to locate targets is to head in the direction of unsuppressed fire, which will place a temporary red dot on the mini-map. If this happens close to you then you have a prime opportunity to third-party someone and get a cheap kill, but if you have to travel a few hundred meters it becomes a less reliable way of getting kills. Consider that the player who has been firing their unsuppressed weapon is fully aware that they have just broadcasted their location and will be quickly relocating after the fight if they have any game sense. Furthermore, many players will likely have the same idea as you and will flock like moths to a flame hoping to get a few juicy kills, this can often create a chain reaction of third-party attacks as people arrive to intervene in the unsuppressed gunfight, who fire more unsuppressed shots thereby attracting more people. This generally ends badly for 90% of those involved, so best avoided if you can.
There are only two methods to reliably locate targets - UAVs and bounty contracts. The former costs money, while the latter awards it. However, the crucial difference is that someone highlighted by an UAV is completely unaware that they have been targeted and that you are heading straight for them. Granted, they will hear the 'UAV overhead' announcement but that is so common in solos that it doesn't have much meaning - in mid-game solos you can reliably assume that there is always at least one UAV overhead from someone. In contrast, when someone is chosen as a bounty target they know that they specifically have been singled out and how close their hunter is. Most players' reaction to this is to just camp in a building for the three minutes until the time expires. If you have a decent short range SMG or shotgun you should be able to rush a building in which your target is hiding, but it is no guarantee of success. Remember, just because you have a bounty target it does not mean you have to attack - if they're hiding upstairs in a house with an origin and claymores on the stairs, it's not a fight you have much chance of winning. Move along.
In short, if you have the money buy a UAV and hunt with whatever intel it gives you. Ideally the kill you get with that intel will fund your next UAV purchase and you will snowball round the map racking up the kills. Remember if there are no UAV targets near you and it runs out of fuel before you reach the red dots, you can try and pinpoint them with your heartbeat sensor. Think of it like a mini-UAV. I should probably mention at this point that if you have left over money from buying a UAV, pick up a self-res if you can. 80% of the time they won't help but you'll feel incredibly grateful for the 20% of times they do. Of course, if there is a fire sale you might as well grab one for free.
If your snowball of death grinds to a halt; maybe you ran out of non-ghosted players in the vicinity or you ran out of money by killing too many poor players, now is a good time to pick up a bounty target to get the snowball going again.
A third way to find targets more reliably than just wandering around, but without the risk of bounties or the cost of UAVs is to employ the famous 'pinwheel rotation'. Popularised by youtuber Icemanisaac, this is where you hug the gas while it is stationary and then rotate into the next circle at a 45 degree angle to the gas when it closes in. The logic for this strategy is that you will catch players moving into the inner circle directly perpendicular to the gas, including players flushed out of their camping spots by the encroaching gas. What's more, you don't need to worry so much about your outside flank since that will be covered by the gas. I find this strategy works best mid to late game when the gas isn't moving as fast and the amount of non-ghosted players diminishes the value of UAVs. Be sure to grab a gas mask if you're using this strategy as you will occasionally need to dip into the gas. Note that you can use UAVs as you pinwheel, giving you extra intel (e.g. if the UAV picks up someone in a building on the edge of the gas, you can expect them to be flushed out where you will be waiting for them).
Using our toolkit of UAVS, bounties, unsuppressed fire and the pinwheel rotation, you should be able to grab a good amount of kills in the mid-game.
Step 4 - Late game (top 20 -> Warzone Victory)
Generally around the top 20 the real end-game begins. Now the value from UAVs is diminished, since non-ghosted players are probably dead and in any event you don't have the liberty anymore to start running around everywhere looking for kills. Bounties aren't worth it anymore because cash becomes more or less irrelevant at this point - there's probably only one or two buy stations left and they're most likely camped. If you come across a bounty you can take it just for the extra intel it gives you, just be very careful about going after them. At this point in the game you need to play a lot more cautiously. I would say camping is fine at this stage - you've had your fun already.
If you can secure a house in the final circle then that's ideal, what is more likely is that the recon-ers have already secured all the nice camping spots. If you have a good MP5 or shotgun you could rush the building but its a risky prospect and liable to third parties joining in the fun. If you are stuck outside in the cold then, if it's an open area, your best bet is probably to continue to pinwheel in as the gas closes, albeit at a slower, more cautious pace. If the final circle is a more urban area like downtown or promenade, you can slowly but surely proceed into the circle making sure to check all your corners, make maximum use of cover and dial the situational awareness up to 11. You can still get quite a few kills this way as often players won't hear your approach if you don't run.
At the final circle it all comes down to gun-skill, stealth and a healthy dollop of luck. In the top 3, try to third party the other two. Nine times out of ten the two players who start the gunfight lose to the player who waited and finished off the victor. Of course, you often don't have the luxury of picking your fights. When the circle starts moving, this is where the RNG can give you or steal away the win. If the circle moves to your side then it's simply a matter of waiting for the gas to deliver your opponent(s) into your arms. If not, then the opposite will apply. The odds will be against you in this case but it's by no means a done deal. Here your only chance of survival is superior gun-skill.
And there you have it! The entire process from dropping to winning the game. This took way longer than I thought it would but I hope I've given some useful tips. I would love for you guys to offer any thoughts on my strategy and stuff you do that also works well.

Chapter 1: Let’s get high
It’s not easy to admit that you have a problem, for a lot of years I drifted through life looking for my next high, in most cases that would be your typical junkies background story leading up to his or her recovery. Only I never recovered, instead I just replaced all my addictions with one really fucked up past time, if you can call it that. I suppose you noticed I said all my addictions, I am what I like to call a well -rounded dope fiend, coke, heroine, meth and a list of pills that would make a pharmacist shit himself, you name it I’m on it, if you got it I want it, and that’s exactly what led me here.
My name isn’t all that important, and given what I do for a living these days it’s probably best that you don’t know. So for now you can call me Joe, this is an insane situation so I won’t blame you if you don’t believe me, but nonetheless for better or worse this is some real shit. I was living in Oregon when I learned the truth, I’m not talking today’s Oregon with super clean product and organized distributers, I’m talking the mom and pop days, when any tweeker with a chemistry set was cooking up crank in the bath tub. I had a pal named Willy that I used to get high with, we used to play this game, we would bet on which blast would be the last because back then the wrong shit could kill you, anyway uh, we had got our hands on some unbelievable smoke from a RV park in Dayville and we were driving back to my place when my car broke down. I know, I know there’s load of stories that start exactly like that, but I can’t make this up, that’s exactly what happened. To tell the truth I knew the car was trash and making that drive was a bad idea but when getting sick isn’t an option you’ll go a long way to get what you need.
The car rolled to a stop half way through “Fossil Beds” on the 19, Willy looked over at me and laughed, “I told you, I knew we should have bet on it, what are we gonna do now Joe? I’m not in the mood for your bullshit, we both know you can’t fix this car, we might as well start walking now and save ourselves the trouble.” I had to laugh, he was right, we both lit up and took a few hits before we got out and started the long walk home. I don’t know if any of you have ever been through the Fossil Beds, it’s a gorgeous place in the day time but when the sun goes down, I swear it’s the deepest darkest place on earth.
After about an hour of walking I glanced over at Willy who was smoking a cigarette and franticly scanning the darkness around us, “You ok man? What the fuck is wrong with you?” he took a long drag off his cigarette and stopped walking still looking around. “Can you smell that?” he sniffed the air “It smells like” Willy tilted his head back and took in a deep breath “It smells like food” his voice slowly turned to a growl as he continued sniffing the air. I thought he was just screwing around until he brought his head down and I saw his eyes, they were oversized and bright yellow, stubble was sprouting from his normally shiny bald head. For a second I thought it was the drugs, but when he started tearing away his face and howling like an animal, I ran. The high made me feel like I was The Flash, blazing a trail across the planet, in reality years of drug abuse and bad life choices meant I was practically moving in slow motion. It didn’t matter though, I took a chance and glanced back over my shoulder to see Willy laying on the ground not moving, I stopped and went back still partially thinking I was high and this was a bad trip but when I made it back to where he was laying I saw a pool of blood forming under him. By the way he was positioned his back was to me, I had to step around to see his face and when I did my brain couldn’t process what I was seeing. His skull was split and there protruding from the shredded flesh and shattered bone was the partially formed skull of a wolf or should I say a ware-wolf? I’m not really sure which is correct. I’m not proud of what I did next but since Willy was dead he wasn’t going to need his dope, so I dug in his pocket and took it then got the hell out of there…….
By the time I got home I was losing it, I stayed up for the next two days blazing my life away, everything was such a blur I didn’t know what was real or imagined, when someone knocked on my door I almost lost it. I ran to my bedroom closet and grabbed my gun as whoever it was kept knocking until I finally yelled out “Stop knocking! I coming for Christ’s sake, just give me a fucking second!” rushing through my apartment I tripped over a shoe and dropped the gun which went off and shot a hole in my wall. “Holy Shit!” A familiar voice yelped on the other side of the door, “Joe, man it’s me Willy, what the hell are you doing?” I almost threw up when I recognized his voice, I scrambled to my feet, opened the door and there he was, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, “Are you really here right now?” I stuttered through the words dreading the response. Willy looked at me for a second then punched me in the face knocking me flat on my ass, “Of course I’m really here, you piece of shit! Why the fuck did you leave me on the side of the road? And you robbed me, me! Your best, scratch that, your only fucking friend and you robbed me! Give me my money or my smoke or I swear to God I’m gonna fucking kill you!”
Fear, paranoia and meth are a lethal combination, seeing Willy standing in my doorway when I clearly saw him die two nights before was just enough to send me right over the edge. Sitting on the floor with blood gushing from my nose, I grabbed my gun and pointed it at him, he narrowed his eyes at me and stepped back, “what are you gonna” he was cut short when I pulled the trigger…..Blood and gunpowder (a smell I would eventually come to love) drifted in the air as Willy fell face down in my living room, the bullet tore through his neck and blew out a part of his spine on its way out, it was a kill shot (and a damn good one if you ask me) he was dead before he hit the ground. I got myself together, the cops would be showing up soon and the last thing I needed was another arrest this one would probably get me life, I rushed to my bedroom and started stuffing a backpack with clothes and any cash I had in the house. I was in the middle of ransacking my room searching for a few grams I stashed when a low growl rumbled through the room, heavy breathing and a guttural huffing sound froze me in my tracks. Before I could turn around it was on me, snarling, biting tearing into me I caught glimpses of bristly black fur and flashes of bright yellow eyes but I hadn’t really seen what was attacking me, I’m tall 6’6 and this thing towered over me by at least a foot, it rag-dolled me around the room slamming me off the walls, but after smoking meth for two days straight I felt like superman and my fight or flight mode was in overdrive. I slammed into a wall and came down on the floor hard, in my head I bounced right back up to my feet, but I’m fairly certain that’s not what really happened, anyway, I got back on my feet and what was standing in front of me was the most amazing and terrifying thing I had ever seen in my life. It was a full on, howl at the moon, 7 foot tall ware-wolf, it was bleeding from a hole in its throat and looking at me like I was dinner. I can’t rationally explain what I did next so I’ll just tell you, I yelled, I screamed as loud as I could, “Come on!” and it roared back before making that guttural huffing sound again and collapsing on the floor, in my mind I had just defeated a beast from hell, so I might have gone a little primal.
There I was covered in blood, pounding my chest and screaming at the ware-wolf corpse on my bedroom floor, when the sweetest voice in the world cut through the madness. It was Shelby, she’s my insanely hot neighbor, I’m just bullshitting you, Shelby’s my weird ass next door neighbor, don’t get me wrong she’s pretty and a very sweet girl, I smoked a little weed with her from time to time, but she’s not insanely hot, (I just thought it sounded cooler) she’s just a little odd if you ask me.
“Are you ok in there Joe?” She called out nervously peeping around the corner into my bedroom. “I heard all the commotion and came to” Shelby paused when she spotted the mass of blood and fur, “Holy shit, is that what I think it is?” she glanced up at me and gasped,” Oh my god, what happened in here? You’re bleeding, we have to get you to the hospital,” the sound of police sirens in the distance slightly brought me back to reality for a second, “I can’t go to jail again Shelby, they’ll lock me up for good this time, let’s go back to your place and I’ll get cleaned up, when the cops leave I’m out of your hair. Please Shelby, you gotta do this for me.”
She couldn’t stop looking at the dead ware-wolf on the floor “Hell no! I’m not getting involved in this. But if you don’t want to go to jail, you better get moving before the cops show up.” I didn’t really have much of a choice but I realized in that moment that Shelby was seeing the ware-wolf that meant it was real and I wasn’t insane. I couldn’t help but smile at the thought and climbed out of the window, the second my feet hit the ground I took off running….
I held up in a fleabag motel for the next few days, some of my wounds were infected and I was falling apart. I watched the news almost religiously for any signs of what went down, but there wasn’t a single word mentioned. About a week later there’s a knock at my door. ”Open up Joe, we need to talk.” I didn’t recognize the voice, but it didn’t matter anymore I was sick, I hadn’t fixed in days and I was burning up from the infection. I staggered over to the door, unlocked it and swung it open, “I’m detective Victor Wells, mind if I have a word with you?” he winced from the reek that was wafting out of my room and pointed to the bed “Why don’t you step over to the bed and take a seat for me.” Wells stepped into my room and closed the door behind him. “I’m going to get straight to the point, this is all off the books. That thing you killed in your apartment is an ongoing problem in this area and I need you to take me to where you got your dope. By the stink of you I can tell you’ve been bitten, so I’ll give you a little advice. You need to see a doctor, getting bit by a ware-wolf doesn’t turn you into one, this aint the movies son! That infection will kill you, the only way to become a ware-wolf is to be born one and that’s exactly why I need you to take me to where you got that crystal.”
I sat there in a daze for a few seconds, it was so hard to focus, the room was swaying and my heart was pounding. Detective Wells shook his head and dug in his pocket pulling out a Narcan inhaler then tossing it to me. ”Take a hit off that, get yourself together and meet me outside. I’m going to get you stitched up then you’re taking me to where I need to go.” Wells turned to walk out of the room and paused, “In case you get the idea to run just keep in mind nobodies looking for you, so if I shoot you in the head, no one cares. Now hurry up we’ve got a lot to do.”……
A short trip, a few stitches and a shot of morphine later, I’m riding shotgun headed for the RV-park in Dayville. Wells started up with the questions right away, “So the night you scored what happened?”
I didn’t really want to talk about it but I figured it had to be better than getting shot in the face. ”Me and Willy rode out to the RV-park and copped from a guy named Al in trailer 18, on the way back my car broke down so we torched up and started walking, Willy started acting crazy then he got sick and passed out. I didn’t see him for two days until he popped up at my apartment and attacked me.”
The expression on his face changed from agitated to curious, “Wait, so your telling me that you smoked the same crystal as Willy and nothing happened to you?” he nodded his head like he was rolling it over in his mind, ”This can’t be right” he muttered to himself.
I couldn’t take it anymore, “Look Wells, since I’m spilling my guts over here, would you mind filling me in on what the hell‘s going on?” The detective chuckled. ”The ware-wolves moved into this area a few months ago, since then we’ve been receiving reports of wolf activity outside their designated areas. The strange thing about it is, all the reports were from civilians claiming someone in their household turned into a wolf and either died on the spot or attacked them then died during the scuffle. The one thing they all had in common was they all had a significant amount of methamphetamine in their blood, my theory is one of these geniuses found a way to turn normies into wolves using meth.”
I sat there staring out the window taking it all in, this couldn’t really be happening, “So, you’re telling me ware-wolves are real? And they’re cooking crystal that turns regular people into more ware-wolves? Yeah, I’m gonna need you stop the car and let me out, the trailer park is few miles ahead on the left and if it’s all the same to you, Ide really rather not be involved in all this.”
The detective pressed down on the accelerator, “Afraid it’s not that simple pal, the fact that the drug didn’t affect you means you’re one of us. If I don’t turn you in I’ll lose my hunting license, and I love my job so like it or not you’re coming with me.”
“One of you? What are you talking about? And what do you mean, turn me in? Am I going to jail? This is crazy, I didn’t do anything wrong, you have to let me go, just pull over and I’ll walk back, I swear you’ll never see me again.”
Wells shook his head. ”Calm down, you’re not going to jail, all immunes like you and me have to be registered with the “Foundation” once they run a few tests and get your info you’ll be free to go. If I were you Ide think about getting onboard, the pay is great and you’ll be doing what you do best, all you’d have to do is get high and report anomalies when you find them, clean-up crew’s or independents like me do the rest.”
The trailer park was coming into view, Wells pulled off the road then got out and went to the trunk. After a few minutes he came back wearing body armor and carrying a shotgun, “when the shooting starts you get down and stay down until it gets quiet.” He pulled down the visor and slid out a business card. ”If I don’t come back in 30 minutes go to the address on this card and give them this location.” Wells threw the car in drive and we sped into the RV Park, we pulled right up to trailer 18 and stopped, the detective hopped out then strolled up to the front door kicking it in on the first try.
After a minute or two Al came crashing through the window and landed on the hood of the car, it wasn’t long before Wells came rushing out to grab him. “Where are they!?” Al was a bloody mess but Wells didn’t care, he beat him and continued with the questions. “Where’s the cook house, and who’s running it?!”
Through cracked teeth and a broken nose Al laughed, “Even if I knew I wouldn’t tell you, so arrest me or get the fuck out of here!” Wells stepped back and checked a round into the chamber,” Arrest you? Do I look like I came here to arrest somebody? Give me your connect and I’ll make this quick.” Al laughed again and spit in the detective’s direction, “Fuck you!” Wells shrugged his shoulders, “have it your way.” He took aim and fired, from the knee down Al’s right leg basically exploded. “Last chance dipshit, give me your supplier and you might live through this.” Al rolled around on the ground screaming, the detective adjusted his aim, “I’ll take that as a no” he pulled the trigger and Al’s head splattered across the ground. Wells turned and walked back into the trailer, after a few minutes he came back with a cellphone, we sat there as he went through every number until he found what he was looking for.
“Well pal, it’s about time I turned you in, I can’t take you with me on this next one without you being registered with the Foundation, but if you decide to join up give me a call I could use a guy like you.” We drove for hours until we came to an unmarked office building in the middle of the city, “Go to the front desk and tell them your name, they already know you’re coming the rest is up to you, see you around Joe.”
Obviously I took the offer, getting paid to get high and travel was too good to pass up, right now I’m on the way to link up with Wells for my first official raid as a member of the Foundation. I’ll be back soon with all the details, according to the Foundation something big is going down all field operatives are being activated, it looks like ill have a lot to share real soon, so until next time stay alert, stay alive, things are about to heat up.

 Chapter 2: Fangs and fur 

We were fed false information and the raid turned out to be a trap. Wells and I were two of the few to come out that situation alive. When we made it back to central we found the building in flames, from what I could tell no one made it out. With the Foundation gone there was no reason to stick around, so I split. That was a few weeks ago, I’m not exactly sure where Wells went after that but I ended up in Texas. I was a few days in on a bender when all hell broke loose, it’d been a crazy night and I was crashing at this little spot called “The Alley”. The Alley is an old set of abandoned apartments tucked away on the edge of one of the tougher neighborhoods, most people avoid the place due to the fact that bodies turn up there pretty frequently. It was close to 3 in the morning when it happened, an older guy everyone called “Nemo” started screaming at the top of his lungs, staggering into his room I found him and two others butt naked clawing at the walls.
“Nemo, what the hell’s going on in here?” He turned to me smiling, his eyes were bucked and he’d pretty much chewed through his bottom lip causing blood and drool to pour down the front of his already stained shirt. ”Hey Joe, you’re right on time.” his body started to shake and I could hear his bones cracking as he moved. “I’m so.” He paused licking his lips, “Hungry.” Dropping to his knees he started ripping out fistfuls of his hair, as he did the other two started tearing themselves apart tossing bloody clumps of shredded flesh against the walls. I didn’t waste another second, turning to run I could hear growling mixed with the meaty cracking of bones snapping as I tore down the hall. Before I could make it to the end of the corridor I glanced back to see the wall come tumbling down filling the hall with dust as three freshly turned ware-wolves came rushing towards me. I saw one unlucky lady pop her head out to see what was going on, one of the smaller wolves grabbed her by the face snatching her out of her room before the others joined in. They moved like a pack, each tearing their share from her as the screams became a wet gurgling masked by the sound of them ripping her apart.
Moving as fast as I could I crashed through the door leading to the stairwell and leap frogged my way down to the first floor exit. Bursting through the doors out into the parking lot I tripped over something and fell just as flood lights lit up the front of the building.
A voice called out, “Hold your fire!” shielding my eyes from the light I spotted a silhouette approaching me. ”Thought I might find you in a place like this, how’s it going Joe?” Still blinded by the light I covered my eyes, “Wells? How’d you find.” I was cut off by the sound of someone screaming as they came crashing out of a third floor window hitting the ground with a wet splat. Wells grabbed me by the arm shouting “Move!” as he pulled me out of the line of fire. More screams erupted from the building, the three wolves I’d seen were just the tip of the iceberg it turns out almost everyone who was on crystal that night had been turned.
Once my vision cleared I saw Wells and two others I didn’t recognize, there was a woman with a muscular build manning the mounted 50 cal. I found out later her name was Cali, the other one was named “Pike” he was a dark skinned guy with a medium build maybe an inch or so shorter than me, he was using a flamethrower to scorch anything moving. Gunfire echoed through the air for the next ten or fifteen minutes and by the time it was over there were 9 wolves in the pile, Pike using the flamethrower lit the bodies up then set the building on fire before we got out of there.
A little under an hour later we were pulling up to a house not far off the main highway, once we were all out of the truck Cali looked me over then turned to Wells, “Jesus Victor, this guy’s a junkie. Are you sure he’s worth the trouble?”
Wells chuckled while removing his body armor, “Yeah, Joe here’s a natural born immune, if you can believe that. Not sure how he slipped through the cracks but I found him by accident.” Pike walked over and took a seat on the tailgate, “This guy? Seriously? No offense but I think you might be losing it Vick.” Standing there listening to them talk about me was starting to get under my skin, Cali shoved me aside and threw some her gear in the bed of the truck. “Fuck off meth mouth, I don’t trust junkies. Vick this guy’s gonna get one of us killed, I say cut him loose.” Digging in his pocket and pulling out a pack of smokes Pike lit one up, blowing out a cloud he looked over at Cali, “I guarantee this guy jackrabbits on us the first chance he gets.”
Wells pulled a cooler from the back seat then opened it and grabbed a beer, “Refresh my memory, Cali didn’t I find you working as a waitress? And Pike when I found you weren’t you a forklift operator?” They both seemed irritated by the question, taking a gulp from his beer Wells looked at the two of them and shook his head. “Leave him alone, we’ve got more important shit to worry about.” The other two went inside and Wells walked over handing me a beer. “Seriously though Joe, take a fucking shower for God’s sake, you stink something awful. They’ll come around, get yourself situated, we’ve got work to do.”
Over the next few days Wells broke it all down for me, the wolves pulled a power play and wiped out most of the Foundation strongholds across the map. When they were done they flooded the streets with tainted dope, this wasn’t just about the drugs anymore. The wolves were trying to take over. According to Wells the wolves are led by a group of elders but only one of them was responsible for what was going on here in the states. Their leader here was a man named Peter Stumpp, he fought against the Foundation forcing all ware-wolves to be registered and tagged with tracking devices. When he lost, Stumpp along with a large number of his pack went off the grid. Over the years more and more wolves joined his cause, but recently their numbers started to decline the wolves were dying off.
We looked through tons of case files, there were accounts from all over the world clusters of wolves were vanishing. The one thing they all had in common was a reference to something called “Project Omega”. Wells and the others had never heard of the project and the majority of the information was either classified.
Leaning back in his chair Wells thumbed through a file for a second then stopped and got up from the table, “These files are trash, there’s nothing in here that’s going to help us.” Looking around the room all eyes were on me, pausing and stumbling through mv words I spoke up.
“I got my last few grams from the east side, there’s an old set of buildings everyone calls the pharmacy. A big guy named Red runs the show, he’s usually got a few people with him but I couldn’t tell you if they’re cooking there or not.” After a long drawn out discussion Cali was picked to take me to the pharmacy, she would hang back and stay out of site while I went in to cop and scout the place.
The second I got inside something felt wrong, the building was quiet. Moving through the hall I kept feeling like someone was watching me. When I got to the stairs I heard a door open behind me and turned to see a short skinny guy covered in tattoos holding a gun.
“You here to see Red?” I nodded and he motioned for me to turn around. “Put your hands on the wall and don’t move, I have to check everyone going up tonight.” After a quick pat down he stepped back and gave me an odd look, “Go on up, but make it quick.” When I got to the second floor I was checked one more time then escorted to Red, he was set up in a different room today, normally he’s in the big office at the end of the hall but today it was a small office with no windows. When I stepped in the door slammed shut behind me and I was left alone with Red who was standing in the center of the room. He looked me over with an angry scowl on his face, “How long have you worked for Wells?”
I knew there was no right answer, no matter what I said, so I lied. “Who’s Wells, I just came to grab a couple of G’s.”
In a flash Red crossed the room, grabbed me by the neck and lifted me off the floor. “I can smell him on you.” his voice shifted to a growl as the skin of his face split and his eyes turned an electric blue. Snarling and tossing me aside he continued his transformation. Scrambling up off the floor I bolted for the door only to be swatted and sent flying into the wall, before I could get back to my feet he came charging slamming into me sending us both crashing through the sheetrock into the next room. Tumbling through the wall put a little distance between us, quickly scanning for anything I could use as a weapon I spotted an empty vodka bottle and grabbed it just as the now fully wolfed out Red went on the attack. He was growling and swiping wildly, I managed to avoid him long enough to smash the bottle then jam what was left of it into his eye. Digging his claws into my left leg he snatched my feet from under me and I went down hard as he came in for a bite. Trying to shield my face and neck saved my life, as he sunk his teeth into my forearm I reached up with my other hand grabbing the hunk of glass sticking out of his eye and drove it further in. Releasing me Red let out an ear piercing yelp and backed off clawing at his face, crawling away and getting to my feet I spotted a window, ran and dove through it.
The one story drop wasn’t all that bad, the landing dislocated my shoulder and the concrete scraped away some skin but I was able to get up in time to see Red come crashing out of the window. There was no time to think, I ran as fast as I could towards the highway, even with a head start there was no way I could outrun him. With the street coming into view I could feel him breathing down the back of my neck and just as the streetlights were in reach there was a muzzle flash from across the highway. I felt the shot zip passed my ear and heard the meaty “Thwack” of it punching through Reds skull just before his body hit the ground. I didn’t look back, I ran till I got to the building Cali was in then stopped by the dumpster and threw up. By the time she made it to me Reds men were headed our way, “Get your shit together, we gotta go!” she shoved me then took off running towards the far end of the alley. I did what I could to keep up, when we finally made it to the car I turned to see Reds men, who were fully transformed at this point, come racing out behind us. Getting in as fast as possible, Cali cranked the engine and we tore out of there, the wolves chased us for a block or two then gave up as we sped away.
“They knew we were coming, Red asked me about Wells before he changed and attacked me!” Cali banged her fist against the steering wheel then paused, “Wait, what do you mean Red changed? What color were his eyes?” for a second I didn’t understand the question. “Blue, but why does it matter?” slowing down the car she pulled off the road and stopped. “What did Red look like before he transformed? Was he tall and fat with a bald head and big red beard?” I nodded my head and she sat back in her seat, “Holy shit, this is bad. Red as you called him is one of Stumpps generals, his real name is Harold Merck. If he’s here that means Stumpp’s here to, we have to get out of this city, there’s no way we can take on the Pack.” There wasn’t much conversation after that, when we got back to the others Cali told them everything. They argued back and forward for a while but in the end Cali and Pike chose to leave, really can’t say I blame them, if I had anywhere else to go I would have left to.
Before they left Pike helped snap my shoulder back in place, it might not have been 100% but at least I could use my arm again. I was in the kitchen cleaning and bandaging my wounds when Wells walked in, “There’s good news and bad news, the bad news is they’re right, we can’t beat the Pack without help. The good news is, we don’t have to beat them we just have to shut down their operation.” Once I was done wrapping my arm I popped a couple of pain killers and washed them down with the last of a warm beer.
“So what’s the plan here Wells? Even if we could shut them down, there’s nothing stopping them from setting up somewhere else.” He laughed and pulled up a chair, “We’re gonna make them come after us, we hit them hard and fast, take as much dope off the streets as possible and who knows we might even luck up and find the cook house.”
Chapter 3: The war on drugs
We’ve been raiding dope spots all over the city for the past two months, we found three small cook houses and burned them to the ground but not before Wells collected all the money and I grabbed as much product as I could carry. The city was going nuts, the Pack was waging a war against the police and we were waging a war against them.
“We got a rough one tonight Joe, this is our first lab. There’s no walking in, this is wet work everybody in the building has to go, are you ready?” Up until now I hadn’t had to do much, normally I would just go in and buy, get the lay out and leave, Wells would come in later and wipe the place out. Now it was finally time to get my hands dirty and to be honest, I couldn’t wait.
Thumping out my cigarette, I finished strapping on my body armor and nodded my head, “Am I ready? Are you ready? I’ve been waiting for this shit!” Wells narrowed his eyes at me shaking his head, “Are you high right now?! I swear to God if you fuck this up, I’ll leave you there.” Laughing, picking up the rest of my gear I looked at Wells, “Of course I’m high, what kind of a question is that? I don’t see how you can do this sober.”
Two hours later we were trekking through the wood closing in on the lab, the place was tucked away far from anything resembling a road, if you didn’t know it was there you would ever find it. It was pitch black out there, if it weren’t for the night vision specs you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. When we caught site of the building the first thing I noticed were the guards, two massive wolves paced the perimeter sniffing the air and scanning the tree line for intruders. Since they hadn’t sniffed us out yet we figured this was as close as we could get, once we had our shots lined up we counted down from three then took the shots in unison. The second they hit the ground the place came to life, more wolves poured out of the building. Going full auto I swept left and Wells peeled off to the right barking out “Keep them between us!” we were only able to drop a few more before the ones that hadn’t turned starting shooting back. Caught up in my own firefight I lost track of Wells, bullets tore through the trees around me as I did my best to stay behind the thickest of them and continued to move in. Laying lead on my target I heard the click of death and stopped to reload, as I popped in another magazine a low heavy growl cut through the darkness behind me. (Shit) Before I could turn around I was blindsided, the bastard slammed into me and sent my body tumbling through the dirt, I lost my rifle and night vision on impact but when I sprung to my feet I pulled my sidearm. The sound of gunfire in the distance told me Wells was still alive but I couldn’t worry about him right then, the wolf growled and paced around me in the darkness, stalking me while I slowly adjusted to the night. The moonlight coming through the trees reflected off its eyes just before it attacked.
Stepping backwards I emptied the clip on that thing but it didn’t stop, the first swipe ripped the flesh off the back of my hand and sent the gun flying. Sidestepping and pulling the knife from my belt I tried to size it up, this thing was huge. In a flash of grey fur its second strike hit me before I could make a move, razor sharp claws sliced through face and spun me off my feet, crawling away as fast as I could I tried to get up but it was on me. Lifting me off the ground before slamming me back down it rag dolled my body, breaking bones until I blacked out…
They say when you have a near death experience your life flashes in front of your eyes, that’s bullshit. I didn’t see anything, all I remember is darkness and silence right up until a surge of electricity pulsed through my body, there were flashes of white light and I heard a voice call out “Clear” just before another wave of energy hit me. The next thing I know I’m waking up in a hospital room with a broken leg, cracked ribs a fractured arm and a severe concussion. On top of all of that I narrowly avoided losing my right eye and was left with a set of scars that run from my jawline to my forehead. I asked everyone who came into my room how I got there but no one would give me an answer, after a few days Wells showed up.
“I can’t believe you tried to fight a Natural with a knife, you are a fucking Wildman.” He laughed and pulled a chair over next to my bed then took a seat. “I’ve never seen the wolf that kicked your ass, what do you remember?” No matter how much I tried to replay it in my head I couldn’t remember much, the only thing I knew for sure was it was grey. Wells said he saw me fighting with it but by the time he got there it was gone, he abandoned the mission and got me out of there as quickly as he could but not without getting torn up pretty badly himself. We weren’t able to shut the lab down, we barely made it out alive, the only good that came out of it was the Pack put a price on our heads, Wells plan worked

Chapter 1: Let’s get high
It’s not easy to admit that you have a problem, for a lot of years I drifted through life looking for my next high, in most cases that would be your typical junkies background story leading up to his or her recovery. Only I never recovered, instead I just replaced all my addictions with one really fucked up past time, if you can call it that. I suppose you noticed I said all my addictions, I am what I like to call a well -rounded dope fiend, coke, heroine, meth and a list of pills that would make a pharmacist shit himself, you name it I’m on it, if you got it I want it, and that’s exactly what led me here.
My name isn’t all that important, and given what I do for a living these days it’s probably best that you don’t know. So for now you can call me Joe, this is an insane situation so I won’t blame you if you don’t believe me, but nonetheless for better or worse this is some real shit. I was living in Oregon when I learned the truth, I’m not talking today’s Oregon with super clean product and organized distributers, I’m talking the mom and pop days, when any tweeker with a chemistry set was cooking up crank in the bath tub. I had a pal named Willy that I used to get high with, we used to play this game, we would bet on which blast would be the last because back then the wrong shit could kill you, anyway uh, we had got our hands on some unbelievable smoke from a RV park in Dayville and we were driving back to my place when my car broke down. I know, I know there’s load of stories that start exactly like that, but I can’t make this up, that’s exactly what happened. To tell the truth I knew the car was trash and making that drive was a bad idea but when getting sick isn’t an option you’ll go a long way to get what you need.
The car rolled to a stop half way through “Fossil Beds” on the 19, Willy looked over at me and laughed, “I told you, I knew we should have bet on it, what are we gonna do now Joe? I’m not in the mood for your bullshit, we both know you can’t fix this car, we might as well start walking now and save ourselves the trouble.” I had to laugh, he was right, we both lit up and took a few hits before we got out and started the long walk home. I don’t know if any of you have ever been through the Fossil Beds, it’s a gorgeous place in the day time but when the sun goes down, I swear it’s the deepest darkest place on earth.
After about an hour of walking I glanced over at Willy who was smoking a cigarette and franticly scanning the darkness around us, “You ok man? What the fuck is wrong with you?” he took a long drag off his cigarette and stopped walking still looking around. “Can you smell that?” he sniffed the air “It smells like” Willy tilted his head back and took in a deep breath “It smells like food” his voice slowly turned to a growl as he continued sniffing the air. I thought he was just screwing around until he brought his head down and I saw his eyes, they were oversized and bright yellow, stubble was sprouting from his normally shiny bald head. For a second I thought it was the drugs, but when he started tearing away his face and howling like an animal, I ran. The high made me feel like I was The Flash, blazing a trail across the planet, in reality years of drug abuse and bad life choices meant I was practically moving in slow motion. It didn’t matter though, I took a chance and glanced back over my shoulder to see Willy laying on the ground not moving, I stopped and went back still partially thinking I was high and this was a bad trip but when I made it back to where he was laying I saw a pool of blood forming under him. By the way he was positioned his back was to me, I had to step around to see his face and when I did my brain couldn’t process what I was seeing. His skull was split and there protruding from the shredded flesh and shattered bone was the partially formed skull of a wolf or should I say a ware-wolf? I’m not really sure which is correct. I’m not proud of what I did next but since Willy was dead he wasn’t going to need his dope, so I dug in his pocket and took it then got the hell out of there…….
By the time I got home I was losing it, I stayed up for the next two days blazing my life away, everything was such a blur I didn’t know what was real or imagined, when someone knocked on my door I almost lost it. I ran to my bedroom closet and grabbed my gun as whoever it was kept knocking until I finally yelled out “Stop knocking! I coming for Christ’s sake, just give me a fucking second!” rushing through my apartment I tripped over a shoe and dropped the gun which went off and shot a hole in my wall. “Holy Shit!” A familiar voice yelped on the other side of the door, “Joe, man it’s me Willy, what the hell are you doing?” I almost threw up when I recognized his voice, I scrambled to my feet, opened the door and there he was, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, “Are you really here right now?” I stuttered through the words dreading the response. Willy looked at me for a second then punched me in the face knocking me flat on my ass, “Of course I’m really here, you piece of shit! Why the fuck did you leave me on the side of the road? And you robbed me, me! Your best, scratch that, your only fucking friend and you robbed me! Give me my money or my smoke or I swear to God I’m gonna fucking kill you!”
Fear, paranoia and meth are a lethal combination, seeing Willy standing in my doorway when I clearly saw him die two nights before was just enough to send me right over the edge. Sitting on the floor with blood gushing from my nose, I grabbed my gun and pointed it at him, he narrowed his eyes at me and stepped back, “what are you gonna” he was cut short when I pulled the trigger…..Blood and gunpowder (a smell I would eventually come to love) drifted in the air as Willy fell face down in my living room, the bullet tore through his neck and blew out a part of his spine on its way out, it was a kill shot (and a damn good one if you ask me) he was dead before he hit the ground. I got myself together, the cops would be showing up soon and the last thing I needed was another arrest this one would probably get me life, I rushed to my bedroom and started stuffing a backpack with clothes and any cash I had in the house. I was in the middle of ransacking my room searching for a few grams I stashed when a low growl rumbled through the room, heavy breathing and a guttural huffing sound froze me in my tracks. Before I could turn around it was on me, snarling, biting tearing into me I caught glimpses of bristly black fur and flashes of bright yellow eyes but I hadn’t really seen what was attacking me, I’m tall 6’6 and this thing towered over me by at least a foot, it rag-dolled me around the room slamming me off the walls, but after smoking meth for two days straight I felt like superman and my fight or flight mode was in overdrive. I slammed into a wall and came down on the floor hard, in my head I bounced right back up to my feet, but I’m fairly certain that’s not what really happened, anyway, I got back on my feet and what was standing in front of me was the most amazing and terrifying thing I had ever seen in my life. It was a full on, howl at the moon, 7 foot tall ware-wolf, it was bleeding from a hole in its throat and looking at me like I was dinner. I can’t rationally explain what I did next so I’ll just tell you, I yelled, I screamed as loud as I could, “Come on!” and it roared back before making that guttural huffing sound again and collapsing on the floor, in my mind I had just defeated a beast from hell, so I might have gone a little primal.
There I was covered in blood, pounding my chest and screaming at the ware-wolf corpse on my bedroom floor, when the sweetest voice in the world cut through the madness. It was Shelby, she’s my insanely hot neighbor, I’m just bullshitting you, Shelby’s my weird ass next door neighbor, don’t get me wrong she’s pretty and a very sweet girl, I smoked a little weed with her from time to time, but she’s not insanely hot, (I just thought it sounded cooler) she’s just a little odd if you ask me.
“Are you ok in there Joe?” She called out nervously peeping around the corner into my bedroom. “I heard all the commotion and came to” Shelby paused when she spotted the mass of blood and fur, “Holy shit, is that what I think it is?” she glanced up at me and gasped,” Oh my god, what happened in here? You’re bleeding, we have to get you to the hospital,” the sound of police sirens in the distance slightly brought me back to reality for a second, “I can’t go to jail again Shelby, they’ll lock me up for good this time, let’s go back to your place and I’ll get cleaned up, when the cops leave I’m out of your hair. Please Shelby, you gotta do this for me.”
She couldn’t stop looking at the dead ware-wolf on the floor “Hell no! I’m not getting involved in this. But if you don’t want to go to jail, you better get moving before the cops show up.” I didn’t really have much of a choice but I realized in that moment that Shelby was seeing the ware-wolf that meant it was real and I wasn’t insane. I couldn’t help but smile at the thought and climbed out of the window, the second my feet hit the ground I took off running….
I held up in a fleabag motel for the next few days, some of my wounds were infected and I was falling apart. I watched the news almost religiously for any signs of what went down, but there wasn’t a single word mentioned. About a week later there’s a knock at my door. ”Open up Joe, we need to talk.” I didn’t recognize the voice, but it didn’t matter anymore I was sick, I hadn’t fixed in days and I was burning up from the infection. I staggered over to the door, unlocked it and swung it open, “I’m detective Victor Wells, mind if I have a word with you?” he winced from the reek that was wafting out of my room and pointed to the bed “Why don’t you step over to the bed and take a seat for me.” Wells stepped into my room and closed the door behind him. “I’m going to get straight to the point, this is all off the books. That thing you killed in your apartment is an ongoing problem in this area and I need you to take me to where you got your dope. By the stink of you I can tell you’ve been bitten, so I’ll give you a little advice. You need to see a doctor, getting bit by a ware-wolf doesn’t turn you into one, this aint the movies son! That infection will kill you, the only way to become a ware-wolf is to be born one and that’s exactly why I need you to take me to where you got that crystal.”
I sat there in a daze for a few seconds, it was so hard to focus, the room was swaying and my heart was pounding. Detective Wells shook his head and dug in his pocket pulling out a Narcan inhaler then tossing it to me. ”Take a hit off that, get yourself together and meet me outside. I’m going to get you stitched up then you’re taking me to where I need to go.” Wells turned to walk out of the room and paused, “In case you get the idea to run just keep in mind nobodies looking for you, so if I shoot you in the head, no one cares. Now hurry up we’ve got a lot to do.”……
A short trip, a few stitches and a shot of morphine later, I’m riding shotgun headed for the RV-park in Dayville. Wells started up with the questions right away, “So the night you scored what happened?”
I didn’t really want to talk about it but I figured it had to be better than getting shot in the face. ”Me and Willy rode out to the RV-park and copped from a guy named Al in trailer 18, on the way back my car broke down so we torched up and started walking, Willy started acting crazy then he got sick and passed out. I didn’t see him for two days until he popped up at my apartment and attacked me.”
The expression on his face changed from agitated to curious, “Wait, so your telling me that you smoked the same crystal as Willy and nothing happened to you?” he nodded his head like he was rolling it over in his mind, ”This can’t be right” he muttered to himself.
I couldn’t take it anymore, “Look Wells, since I’m spilling my guts over here, would you mind filling me in on what the hell‘s going on?” The detective chuckled. ”The ware-wolves moved into this area a few months ago, since then we’ve been receiving reports of wolf activity outside their designated areas. The strange thing about it is, all the reports were from civilians claiming someone in their household turned into a wolf and either died on the spot or attacked them then died during the scuffle. The one thing they all had in common was they all had a significant amount of methamphetamine in their blood, my theory is one of these geniuses found a way to turn normies into wolves using meth.”
I sat there staring out the window taking it all in, this couldn’t really be happening, “So, you’re telling me ware-wolves are real? And they’re cooking crystal that turns regular people into more ware-wolves? Yeah, I’m gonna need you stop the car and let me out, the trailer park is few miles ahead on the left and if it’s all the same to you, Ide really rather not be involved in all this.”
The detective pressed down on the accelerator, “Afraid it’s not that simple pal, the fact that the drug didn’t affect you means you’re one of us. If I don’t turn you in I’ll lose my hunting license, and I love my job so like it or not you’re coming with me.”
“One of you? What are you talking about? And what do you mean, turn me in? Am I going to jail? This is crazy, I didn’t do anything wrong, you have to let me go, just pull over and I’ll walk back, I swear you’ll never see me again.”
Wells shook his head. ”Calm down, you’re not going to jail, all immunes like you and me have to be registered with the “Foundation” once they run a few tests and get your info you’ll be free to go. If I were you Ide think about getting onboard, the pay is great and you’ll be doing what you do best, all you’d have to do is get high and report anomalies when you find them, clean-up crew’s or independents like me do the rest.”
The trailer park was coming into view, Wells pulled off the road then got out and went to the trunk. After a few minutes he came back wearing body armor and carrying a shotgun, “when the shooting starts you get down and stay down until it gets quiet.” He pulled down the visor and slid out a business card. ”If I don’t come back in 30 minutes go to the address on this card and give them this location.” Wells threw the car in drive and we sped into the RV Park, we pulled right up to trailer 18 and stopped, the detective hopped out then strolled up to the front door kicking it in on the first try.
After a minute or two Al came crashing through the window and landed on the hood of the car, it wasn’t long before Wells came rushing out to grab him. “Where are they!?” Al was a bloody mess but Wells didn’t care, he beat him and continued with the questions. “Where’s the cook house, and who’s running it?!”
Through cracked teeth and a broken nose Al laughed, “Even if I knew I wouldn’t tell you, so arrest me or get the fuck out of here!” Wells stepped back and checked a round into the chamber,” Arrest you? Do I look like I came here to arrest somebody? Give me your connect and I’ll make this quick.” Al laughed again and spit in the detective’s direction, “Fuck you!” Wells shrugged his shoulders, “have it your way.” He took aim and fired, from the knee down Al’s right leg basically exploded. “Last chance dipshit, give me your supplier and you might live through this.” Al rolled around on the ground screaming, the detective adjusted his aim, “I’ll take that as a no” he pulled the trigger and Al’s head splattered across the ground. Wells turned and walked back into the trailer, after a few minutes he came back with a cellphone, we sat there as he went through every number until he found what he was looking for.
“Well pal, it’s about time I turned you in, I can’t take you with me on this next one without you being registered with the Foundation, but if you decide to join up give me a call I could use a guy like you.” We drove for hours until we came to an unmarked office building in the middle of the city, “Go to the front desk and tell them your name, they already know you’re coming the rest is up to you, see you around Joe.”
Obviously I took the offer, getting paid to get high and travel was too good to pass up, right now I’m on the way to link up with Wells for my first official raid as a member of the Foundation. I’ll be back soon with all the details, according to the Foundation something big is going down all field operatives are being activated, it looks like ill have a lot to share real soon, so until next time stay alert, stay alive, things are about to heat up.

 Chapter 2: Fangs and fur 

We were fed false information and the raid turned out to be a trap. Wells and I were two of the few to come out that situation alive. When we made it back to central we found the building in flames, from what I could tell no one made it out. With the Foundation gone there was no reason to stick around, so I split. That was a few weeks ago, I’m not exactly sure where Wells went after that but I ended up in Texas. I was a few days in on a bender when all hell broke loose, it’d been a crazy night and I was crashing at this little spot called “The Alley”. The Alley is an old set of abandoned apartments tucked away on the edge of one of the tougher neighborhoods, most people avoid the place due to the fact that bodies turn up there pretty frequently. It was close to 3 in the morning when it happened, an older guy everyone called “Nemo” started screaming at the top of his lungs, staggering into his room I found him and two others butt naked clawing at the walls.
“Nemo, what the hell’s going on in here?” He turned to me smiling, his eyes were bucked and he’d pretty much chewed through his bottom lip causing blood and drool to pour down the front of his already stained shirt. ”Hey Joe, you’re right on time.” his body started to shake and I could hear his bones cracking as he moved. “I’m so.” He paused licking his lips, “Hungry.” Dropping to his knees he started ripping out fistfuls of his hair, as he did the other two started tearing themselves apart tossing bloody clumps of shredded flesh against the walls. I didn’t waste another second, turning to run I could hear growling mixed with the meaty cracking of bones snapping as I tore down the hall. Before I could make it to the end of the corridor I glanced back to see the wall come tumbling down filling the hall with dust as three freshly turned ware-wolves came rushing towards me. I saw one unlucky lady pop her head out to see what was going on, one of the smaller wolves grabbed her by the face snatching her out of her room before the others joined in. They moved like a pack, each tearing their share from her as the screams became a wet gurgling masked by the sound of them ripping her apart.
Moving as fast as I could I crashed through the door leading to the stairwell and leap frogged my way down to the first floor exit. Bursting through the doors out into the parking lot I tripped over something and fell just as flood lights lit up the front of the building.
A voice called out, “Hold your fire!” shielding my eyes from the light I spotted a silhouette approaching me. ”Thought I might find you in a place like this, how’s it going Joe?” Still blinded by the light I covered my eyes, “Wells? How’d you find.” I was cut off by the sound of someone screaming as they came crashing out of a third floor window hitting the ground with a wet splat. Wells grabbed me by the arm shouting “Move!” as he pulled me out of the line of fire. More screams erupted from the building, the three wolves I’d seen were just the tip of the iceberg it turns out almost everyone who was on crystal that night had been turned.
Once my vision cleared I saw Wells and two others I didn’t recognize, there was a woman with a muscular build manning the mounted 50 cal. I found out later her name was Cali, the other one was named “Pike” he was a dark skinned guy with a medium build maybe an inch or so shorter than me, he was using a flamethrower to scorch anything moving. Gunfire echoed through the air for the next ten or fifteen minutes and by the time it was over there were 9 wolves in the pile, Pike using the flamethrower lit the bodies up then set the building on fire before we got out of there.
A little under an hour later we were pulling up to a house not far off the main highway, once we were all out of the truck Cali looked me over then turned to Wells, “Jesus Victor, this guy’s a junkie. Are you sure he’s worth the trouble?”
Wells chuckled while removing his body armor, “Yeah, Joe here’s a natural born immune, if you can believe that. Not sure how he slipped through the cracks but I found him by accident.” Pike walked over and took a seat on the tailgate, “This guy? Seriously? No offense but I think you might be losing it Vick.” Standing there listening to them talk about me was starting to get under my skin, Cali shoved me aside and threw some her gear in the bed of the truck. “Fuck off meth mouth, I don’t trust junkies. Vick this guy’s gonna get one of us killed, I say cut him loose.” Digging in his pocket and pulling out a pack of smokes Pike lit one up, blowing out a cloud he looked over at Cali, “I guarantee this guy jackrabbits on us the first chance he gets.”
Wells pulled a cooler from the back seat then opened it and grabbed a beer, “Refresh my memory, Cali didn’t I find you working as a waitress? And Pike when I found you weren’t you a forklift operator?” They both seemed irritated by the question, taking a gulp from his beer Wells looked at the two of them and shook his head. “Leave him alone, we’ve got more important shit to worry about.” The other two went inside and Wells walked over handing me a beer. “Seriously though Joe, take a fucking shower for God’s sake, you stink something awful. They’ll come around, get yourself situated, we’ve got work to do.”
Over the next few days Wells broke it all down for me, the wolves pulled a power play and wiped out most of the Foundation strongholds across the map. When they were done they flooded the streets with tainted dope, this wasn’t just about the drugs anymore. The wolves were trying to take over. According to Wells the wolves are led by a group of elders but only one of them was responsible for what was going on here in the states. Their leader here was a man named Peter Stumpp, he fought against the Foundation forcing all ware-wolves to be registered and tagged with tracking devices. When he lost, Stumpp along with a large number of his pack went off the grid. Over the years more and more wolves joined his cause, but recently their numbers started to decline the wolves were dying off.
We looked through tons of case files, there were accounts from all over the world clusters of wolves were vanishing. The one thing they all had in common was a reference to something called “Project Omega”. Wells and the others had never heard of the project and the majority of the information was either classified.
Leaning back in his chair Wells thumbed through a file for a second then stopped and got up from the table, “These files are trash, there’s nothing in here that’s going to help us.” Looking around the room all eyes were on me, pausing and stumbling through mv words I spoke up.
“I got my last few grams from the east side, there’s an old set of buildings everyone calls the pharmacy. A big guy named Red runs the show, he’s usually got a few people with him but I couldn’t tell you if they’re cooking there or not.” After a long drawn out discussion Cali was picked to take me to the pharmacy, she would hang back and stay out of site while I went in to cop and scout the place.
The second I got inside something felt wrong, the building was quiet. Moving through the hall I kept feeling like someone was watching me. When I got to the stairs I heard a door open behind me and turned to see a short skinny guy covered in tattoos holding a gun.
“You here to see Red?” I nodded and he motioned for me to turn around. “Put your hands on the wall and don’t move, I have to check everyone going up tonight.” After a quick pat down he stepped back and gave me an odd look, “Go on up, but make it quick.” When I got to the second floor I was checked one more time then escorted to Red, he was set up in a different room today, normally he’s in the big office at the end of the hall but today it was a small office with no windows. When I stepped in the door slammed shut behind me and I was left alone with Red who was standing in the center of the room. He looked me over with an angry scowl on his face, “How long have you worked for Wells?”
I knew there was no right answer, no matter what I said, so I lied. “Who’s Wells, I just came to grab a couple of G’s.”
In a flash Red crossed the room, grabbed me by the neck and lifted me off the floor. “I can smell him on you.” his voice shifted to a growl as the skin of his face split and his eyes turned an electric blue. Snarling and tossing me aside he continued his transformation. Scrambling up off the floor I bolted for the door only to be swatted and sent flying into the wall, before I could get back to my feet he came charging slamming into me sending us both crashing through the sheetrock into the next room. Tumbling through the wall put a little distance between us, quickly scanning for anything I could use as a weapon I spotted an empty vodka bottle and grabbed it just as the now fully wolfed out Red went on the attack. He was growling and swiping wildly, I managed to avoid him long enough to smash the bottle then jam what was left of it into his eye. Digging his claws into my left leg he snatched my feet from under me and I went down hard as he came in for a bite. Trying to shield my face and neck saved my life, as he sunk his teeth into my forearm I reached up with my other hand grabbing the hunk of glass sticking out of his eye and drove it further in. Releasing me Red let out an ear piercing yelp and backed off clawing at his face, crawling away and getting to my feet I spotted a window, ran and dove through it.
The one story drop wasn’t all that bad, the landing dislocated my shoulder and the concrete scraped away some skin but I was able to get up in time to see Red come crashing out of the window. There was no time to think, I ran as fast as I could towards the highway, even with a head start there was no way I could outrun him. With the street coming into view I could feel him breathing down the back of my neck and just as the streetlights were in reach there was a muzzle flash from across the highway. I felt the shot zip passed my ear and heard the meaty “Thwack” of it punching through Reds skull just before his body hit the ground. I didn’t look back, I ran till I got to the building Cali was in then stopped by the dumpster and threw up. By the time she made it to me Reds men were headed our way, “Get your shit together, we gotta go!” she shoved me then took off running towards the far end of the alley. I did what I could to keep up, when we finally made it to the car I turned to see Reds men, who were fully transformed at this point, come racing out behind us. Getting in as fast as possible, Cali cranked the engine and we tore out of there, the wolves chased us for a block or two then gave up as we sped away.
“They knew we were coming, Red asked me about Wells before he changed and attacked me!” Cali banged her fist against the steering wheel then paused, “Wait, what do you mean Red changed? What color were his eyes?” for a second I didn’t understand the question. “Blue, but why does it matter?” slowing down the car she pulled off the road and stopped. “What did Red look like before he transformed? Was he tall and fat with a bald head and big red beard?” I nodded my head and she sat back in her seat, “Holy shit, this is bad. Red as you called him is one of Stumpps generals, his real name is Harold Merck. If he’s here that means Stumpp’s here to, we have to get out of this city, there’s no way we can take on the Pack.” There wasn’t much conversation after that, when we got back to the others Cali told them everything. They argued back and forward for a while but in the end Cali and Pike chose to leave, really can’t say I blame them, if I had anywhere else to go I would have left to.
Before they left Pike helped snap my shoulder back in place, it might not have been 100% but at least I could use my arm again. I was in the kitchen cleaning and bandaging my wounds when Wells walked in, “There’s good news and bad news, the bad news is they’re right, we can’t beat the Pack without help. The good news is, we don’t have to beat them we just have to shut down their operation.” Once I was done wrapping my arm I popped a couple of pain killers and washed them down with the last of a warm beer.
“So what’s the plan here Wells? Even if we could shut them down, there’s nothing stopping them from setting up somewhere else.” He laughed and pulled up a chair, “We’re gonna make them come after us, we hit them hard and fast, take as much dope off the streets as possible and who knows we might even luck up and find the cook house.”
Chapter 3: The war on drugs
We’ve been raiding dope spots all over the city for the past two months, we found three small cook houses and burned them to the ground but not before Wells collected all the money and I grabbed as much product as I could carry. The city was going nuts, the Pack was waging a war against the police and we were waging a war against them.
“We got a rough one tonight Joe, this is our first lab. There’s no walking in, this is wet work everybody in the building has to go, are you ready?” Up until now I hadn’t had to do much, normally I would just go in and buy, get the lay out and leave, Wells would come in later and wipe the place out. Now it was finally time to get my hands dirty and to be honest, I couldn’t wait.
Thumping out my cigarette, I finished strapping on my body armor and nodded my head, “Am I ready? Are you ready? I’ve been waiting for this shit!” Wells narrowed his eyes at me shaking his head, “Are you high right now?! I swear to God if you fuck this up, I’ll leave you there.” Laughing, picking up the rest of my gear I looked at Wells, “Of course I’m high, what kind of a question is that? I don’t see how you can do this sober.”
Two hours later we were trekking through the wood closing in on the lab, the place was tucked away far from anything resembling a road, if you didn’t know it was there you would ever find it. It was pitch black out there, if it weren’t for the night vision specs you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. When we caught site of the building the first thing I noticed were the guards, two massive wolves paced the perimeter sniffing the air and scanning the tree line for intruders. Since they hadn’t sniffed us out yet we figured this was as close as we could get, once we had our shots lined up we counted down from three then took the shots in unison. The second they hit the ground the place came to life, more wolves poured out of the building. Going full auto I swept left and Wells peeled off to the right barking out “Keep them between us!” we were only able to drop a few more before the ones that hadn’t turned starting shooting back. Caught up in my own firefight I lost track of Wells, bullets tore through the trees around me as I did my best to stay behind the thickest of them and continued to move in. Laying lead on my target I heard the click of death and stopped to reload, as I popped in another magazine a low heavy growl cut through the darkness behind me. (Shit) Before I could turn around I was blindsided, the bastard slammed into me and sent my body tumbling through the dirt, I lost my rifle and night vision on impact but when I sprung to my feet I pulled my sidearm. The sound of gunfire in the distance told me Wells was still alive but I couldn’t worry about him right then, the wolf growled and paced around me in the darkness, stalking me while I slowly adjusted to the night. The moonlight coming through the trees reflected off its eyes just before it attacked.
Stepping backwards I emptied the clip on that thing but it didn’t stop, the first swipe ripped the flesh off the back of my hand and sent the gun flying. Sidestepping and pulling the knife from my belt I tried to size it up, this thing was huge. In a flash of grey fur its second strike hit me before I could make a move, razor sharp claws sliced through face and spun me off my feet, crawling away as fast as I could I tried to get up but it was on me. Lifting me off the ground before slamming me back down it rag dolled my body, breaking bones until I blacked out…
They say when you have a near death experience your life flashes in front of your eyes, that’s bullshit. I didn’t see anything, all I remember is darkness and silence right up until a surge of electricity pulsed through my body, there were flashes of white light and I heard a voice call out “Clear” just before another wave of energy hit me. The next thing I know I’m waking up in a hospital room with a broken leg, cracked ribs a fractured arm and a severe concussion. On top of all of that I narrowly avoided losing my right eye and was left with a set of scars that run from my jawline to my forehead. I asked everyone who came into my room how I got there but no one would give me an answer, after a few days Wells showed up.
“I can’t believe you tried to fight a Natural with a knife, you are a fucking Wildman.” He laughed and pulled a chair over next to my bed then took a seat. “I’ve never seen the wolf that kicked your ass, what do you remember?” No matter how much I tried to replay it in my head I couldn’t remember much, the only thing I knew for sure was it was grey. Wells said he saw me fighting with it but by the time he got there it was gone, he abandoned the mission and got me out of there as quickly as he could but not without getting torn up pretty badly himself. We weren’t able to shut the lab down, we barely made it out alive, the only good that came out of it was the Pack put a price on our heads, Wells plan worked….

Chapter 1: Let’s get high
It’s not easy to admit that you have a problem, for a lot of years I drifted through life looking for my next high, in most cases that would be your typical junkies background story leading up to his or her recovery. Only I never recovered, instead I just replaced all my addictions with one really fucked up past time, if you can call it that. I suppose you noticed I said all my addictions, I am what I like to call a well -rounded dope fiend, coke, heroine, meth and a list of pills that would make a pharmacist shit himself, you name it I’m on it, if you got it I want it, and that’s exactly what led me here.
My name isn’t all that important, and given what I do for a living these days it’s probably best that you don’t know. So for now you can call me Joe, this is an insane situation so I won’t blame you if you don’t believe me, but nonetheless for better or worse this is some real shit. I was living in Oregon when I learned the truth, I’m not talking today’s Oregon with super clean product and organized distributers, I’m talking the mom and pop days, when any tweeker with a chemistry set was cooking up crank in the bath tub. I had a pal named Willy that I used to get high with, we used to play this game, we would bet on which blast would be the last because back then the wrong shit could kill you, anyway uh, we had got our hands on some unbelievable smoke from a RV park in Dayville and we were driving back to my place when my car broke down. I know, I know there’s load of stories that start exactly like that, but I can’t make this up, that’s exactly what happened. To tell the truth I knew the car was trash and making that drive was a bad idea but when getting sick isn’t an option you’ll go a long way to get what you need.
The car rolled to a stop half way through “Fossil Beds” on the 19, Willy looked over at me and laughed, “I told you, I knew we should have bet on it, what are we gonna do now Joe? I’m not in the mood for your bullshit, we both know you can’t fix this car, we might as well start walking now and save ourselves the trouble.” I had to laugh, he was right, we both lit up and took a few hits before we got out and started the long walk home. I don’t know if any of you have ever been through the Fossil Beds, it’s a gorgeous place in the day time but when the sun goes down, I swear it’s the deepest darkest place on earth.
After about an hour of walking I glanced over at Willy who was smoking a cigarette and franticly scanning the darkness around us, “You ok man? What the fuck is wrong with you?” he took a long drag off his cigarette and stopped walking still looking around. “Can you smell that?” he sniffed the air “It smells like” Willy tilted his head back and took in a deep breath “It smells like food” his voice slowly turned to a growl as he continued sniffing the air. I thought he was just screwing around until he brought his head down and I saw his eyes, they were oversized and bright yellow, stubble was sprouting from his normally shiny bald head. For a second I thought it was the drugs, but when he started tearing away his face and howling like an animal, I ran. The high made me feel like I was The Flash, blazing a trail across the planet, in reality years of drug abuse and bad life choices meant I was practically moving in slow motion. It didn’t matter though, I took a chance and glanced back over my shoulder to see Willy laying on the ground not moving, I stopped and went back still partially thinking I was high and this was a bad trip but when I made it back to where he was laying I saw a pool of blood forming under him. By the way he was positioned his back was to me, I had to step around to see his face and when I did my brain couldn’t process what I was seeing. His skull was split and there protruding from the shredded flesh and shattered bone was the partially formed skull of a wolf or should I say a ware-wolf? I’m not really sure which is correct. I’m not proud of what I did next but since Willy was dead he wasn’t going to need his dope, so I dug in his pocket and took it then got the hell out of there…….
By the time I got home I was losing it, I stayed up for the next two days blazing my life away, everything was such a blur I didn’t know what was real or imagined, when someone knocked on my door I almost lost it. I ran to my bedroom closet and grabbed my gun as whoever it was kept knocking until I finally yelled out “Stop knocking! I coming for Christ’s sake, just give me a fucking second!” rushing through my apartment I tripped over a shoe and dropped the gun which went off and shot a hole in my wall. “Holy Shit!” A familiar voice yelped on the other side of the door, “Joe, man it’s me Willy, what the hell are you doing?” I almost threw up when I recognized his voice, I scrambled to my feet, opened the door and there he was, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, “Are you really here right now?” I stuttered through the words dreading the response. Willy looked at me for a second then punched me in the face knocking me flat on my ass, “Of course I’m really here, you piece of shit! Why the fuck did you leave me on the side of the road? And you robbed me, me! Your best, scratch that, your only fucking friend and you robbed me! Give me my money or my smoke or I swear to God I’m gonna fucking kill you!”
Fear, paranoia and meth are a lethal combination, seeing Willy standing in my doorway when I clearly saw him die two nights before was just enough to send me right over the edge. Sitting on the floor with blood gushing from my nose, I grabbed my gun and pointed it at him, he narrowed his eyes at me and stepped back, “what are you gonna” he was cut short when I pulled the trigger…..Blood and gunpowder (a smell I would eventually come to love) drifted in the air as Willy fell face down in my living room, the bullet tore through his neck and blew out a part of his spine on its way out, it was a kill shot (and a damn good one if you ask me) he was dead before he hit the ground. I got myself together, the cops would be showing up soon and the last thing I needed was another arrest this one would probably get me life, I rushed to my bedroom and started stuffing a backpack with clothes and any cash I had in the house. I was in the middle of ransacking my room searching for a few grams I stashed when a low growl rumbled through the room, heavy breathing and a guttural huffing sound froze me in my tracks. Before I could turn around it was on me, snarling, biting tearing into me I caught glimpses of bristly black fur and flashes of bright yellow eyes but I hadn’t really seen what was attacking me, I’m tall 6’6 and this thing towered over me by at least a foot, it rag-dolled me around the room slamming me off the walls, but after smoking meth for two days straight I felt like superman and my fight or flight mode was in overdrive. I slammed into a wall and came down on the floor hard, in my head I bounced right back up to my feet, but I’m fairly certain that’s not what really happened, anyway, I got back on my feet and what was standing in front of me was the most amazing and terrifying thing I had ever seen in my life. It was a full on, howl at the moon, 7 foot tall ware-wolf, it was bleeding from a hole in its throat and looking at me like I was dinner. I can’t rationally explain what I did next so I’ll just tell you, I yelled, I screamed as loud as I could, “Come on!” and it roared back before making that guttural huffing sound again and collapsing on the floor, in my mind I had just defeated a beast from hell, so I might have gone a little primal.
There I was covered in blood, pounding my chest and screaming at the ware-wolf corpse on my bedroom floor, when the sweetest voice in the world cut through the madness. It was Shelby, she’s my insanely hot neighbor, I’m just bullshitting you, Shelby’s my weird ass next door neighbor, don’t get me wrong she’s pretty and a very sweet girl, I smoked a little weed with her from time to time, but she’s not insanely hot, (I just thought it sounded cooler) she’s just a little odd if you ask me.
“Are you ok in there Joe?” She called out nervously peeping around the corner into my bedroom. “I heard all the commotion and came to” Shelby paused when she spotted the mass of blood and fur, “Holy shit, is that what I think it is?” she glanced up at me and gasped,” Oh my god, what happened in here? You’re bleeding, we have to get you to the hospital,” the sound of police sirens in the distance slightly brought me back to reality for a second, “I can’t go to jail again Shelby, they’ll lock me up for good this time, let’s go back to your place and I’ll get cleaned up, when the cops leave I’m out of your hair. Please Shelby, you gotta do this for me.”
She couldn’t stop looking at the dead ware-wolf on the floor “Hell no! I’m not getting involved in this. But if you don’t want to go to jail, you better get moving before the cops show up.” I didn’t really have much of a choice but I realized in that moment that Shelby was seeing the ware-wolf that meant it was real and I wasn’t insane. I couldn’t help but smile at the thought and climbed out of the window, the second my feet hit the ground I took off running….
I held up in a fleabag motel for the next few days, some of my wounds were infected and I was falling apart. I watched the news almost religiously for any signs of what went down, but there wasn’t a single word mentioned. About a week later there’s a knock at my door. ”Open up Joe, we need to talk.” I didn’t recognize the voice, but it didn’t matter anymore I was sick, I hadn’t fixed in days and I was burning up from the infection. I staggered over to the door, unlocked it and swung it open, “I’m detective Victor Wells, mind if I have a word with you?” he winced from the reek that was wafting out of my room and pointed to the bed “Why don’t you step over to the bed and take a seat for me.” Wells stepped into my room and closed the door behind him. “I’m going to get straight to the point, this is all off the books. That thing you killed in your apartment is an ongoing problem in this area and I need you to take me to where you got your dope. By the stink of you I can tell you’ve been bitten, so I’ll give you a little advice. You need to see a doctor, getting bit by a ware-wolf doesn’t turn you into one, this aint the movies son! That infection will kill you, the only way to become a ware-wolf is to be born one and that’s exactly why I need you to take me to where you got that crystal.”
I sat there in a daze for a few seconds, it was so hard to focus, the room was swaying and my heart was pounding. Detective Wells shook his head and dug in his pocket pulling out a Narcan inhaler then tossing it to me. ”Take a hit off that, get yourself together and meet me outside. I’m going to get you stitched up then you’re taking me to where I need to go.” Wells turned to walk out of the room and paused, “In case you get the idea to run just keep in mind nobodies looking for you, so if I shoot you in the head, no one cares. Now hurry up we’ve got a lot to do.”……
A short trip, a few stitches and a shot of morphine later, I’m riding shotgun headed for the RV-park in Dayville. Wells started up with the questions right away, “So the night you scored what happened?”
I didn’t really want to talk about it but I figured it had to be better than getting shot in the face. ”Me and Willy rode out to the RV-park and copped from a guy named Al in trailer 18, on the way back my car broke down so we torched up and started walking, Willy started acting crazy then he got sick and passed out. I didn’t see him for two days until he popped up at my apartment and attacked me.”
The expression on his face changed from agitated to curious, “Wait, so your telling me that you smoked the same crystal as Willy and nothing happened to you?” he nodded his head like he was rolling it over in his mind, ”This can’t be right” he muttered to himself.
I couldn’t take it anymore, “Look Wells, since I’m spilling my guts over here, would you mind filling me in on what the hell‘s going on?” The detective chuckled. ”The ware-wolves moved into this area a few months ago, since then we’ve been receiving reports of wolf activity outside their designated areas. The strange thing about it is, all the reports were from civilians claiming someone in their household turned into a wolf and either died on the spot or attacked them then died during the scuffle. The one thing they all had in common was they all had a significant amount of methamphetamine in their blood, my theory is one of these geniuses found a way to turn normies into wolves using meth.”
I sat there staring out the window taking it all in, this couldn’t really be happening, “So, you’re telling me ware-wolves are real? And they’re cooking crystal that turns regular people into more ware-wolves? Yeah, I’m gonna need you stop the car and let me out, the trailer park is few miles ahead on the left and if it’s all the same to you, Ide really rather not be involved in all this.”
The detective pressed down on the accelerator, “Afraid it’s not that simple pal, the fact that the drug didn’t affect you means you’re one of us. If I don’t turn you in I’ll lose my hunting license, and I love my job so like it or not you’re coming with me.”
“One of you? What are you talking about? And what do you mean, turn me in? Am I going to jail? This is crazy, I didn’t do anything wrong, you have to let me go, just pull over and I’ll walk back, I swear you’ll never see me again.”
Wells shook his head. ”Calm down, you’re not going to jail, all immunes like you and me have to be registered with the “Foundation” once they run a few tests and get your info you’ll be free to go. If I were you Ide think about getting onboard, the pay is great and you’ll be doing what you do best, all you’d have to do is get high and report anomalies when you find them, clean-up crew’s or independents like me do the rest.”
The trailer park was coming into view, Wells pulled off the road then got out and went to the trunk. After a few minutes he came back wearing body armor and carrying a shotgun, “when the shooting starts you get down and stay down until it gets quiet.” He pulled down the visor and slid out a business card. ”If I don’t come back in 30 minutes go to the address on this card and give them this location.” Wells threw the car in drive and we sped into the RV Park, we pulled right up to trailer 18 and stopped, the detective hopped out then strolled up to the front door kicking it in on the first try.
After a minute or two Al came crashing through the window and landed on the hood of the car, it wasn’t long before Wells came rushing out to grab him. “Where are they!?” Al was a bloody mess but Wells didn’t care, he beat him and continued with the questions. “Where’s the cook house, and who’s running it?!”
Through cracked teeth and a broken nose Al laughed, “Even if I knew I wouldn’t tell you, so arrest me or get the fuck out of here!” Wells stepped back and checked a round into the chamber,” Arrest you? Do I look like I came here to arrest somebody? Give me your connect and I’ll make this quick.” Al laughed again and spit in the detective’s direction, “Fuck you!” Wells shrugged his shoulders, “have it your way.” He took aim and fired, from the knee down Al’s right leg basically exploded. “Last chance dipshit, give me your supplier and you might live through this.” Al rolled around on the ground screaming, the detective adjusted his aim, “I’ll take that as a no” he pulled the trigger and Al’s head splattered across the ground. Wells turned and walked back into the trailer, after a few minutes he came back with a cellphone, we sat there as he went through every number until he found what he was looking for.
“Well pal, it’s about time I turned you in, I can’t take you with me on this next one without you being registered with the Foundation, but if you decide to join up give me a call I could use a guy like you.” We drove for hours until we came to an unmarked office building in the middle of the city, “Go to the front desk and tell them your name, they already know you’re coming the rest is up to you, see you around Joe.”
Obviously I took the offer, getting paid to get high and travel was too good to pass up, right now I’m on the way to link up with Wells for my first official raid as a member of the Foundation. I’ll be back soon with all the details, according to the Foundation something big is going down all field operatives are being activated, it looks like ill have a lot to share real soon, so until next time stay alert, stay alive, things are about to heat up.

 Chapter 2: Fangs and fur 

We were fed false information and the raid turned out to be a trap. Wells and I were two of the few to come out that situation alive. When we made it back to central we found the building in flames, from what I could tell no one made it out. With the Foundation gone there was no reason to stick around, so I split. That was a few weeks ago, I’m not exactly sure where Wells went after that but I ended up in Texas. I was a few days in on a bender when all hell broke loose, it’d been a crazy night and I was crashing at this little spot called “The Alley”. The Alley is an old set of abandoned apartments tucked away on the edge of one of the tougher neighborhoods, most people avoid the place due to the fact that bodies turn up there pretty frequently. It was close to 3 in the morning when it happened, an older guy everyone called “Nemo” started screaming at the top of his lungs, staggering into his room I found him and two others butt naked clawing at the walls.
“Nemo, what the hell’s going on in here?” He turned to me smiling, his eyes were bucked and he’d pretty much chewed through his bottom lip causing blood and drool to pour down the front of his already stained shirt. ”Hey Joe, you’re right on time.” his body started to shake and I could hear his bones cracking as he moved. “I’m so.” He paused licking his lips, “Hungry.” Dropping to his knees he started ripping out fistfuls of his hair, as he did the other two started tearing themselves apart tossing bloody clumps of shredded flesh against the walls. I didn’t waste another second, turning to run I could hear growling mixed with the meaty cracking of bones snapping as I tore down the hall. Before I could make it to the end of the corridor I glanced back to see the wall come tumbling down filling the hall with dust as three freshly turned ware-wolves came rushing towards me. I saw one unlucky lady pop her head out to see what was going on, one of the smaller wolves grabbed her by the face snatching her out of her room before the others joined in. They moved like a pack, each tearing their share from her as the screams became a wet gurgling masked by the sound of them ripping her apart.
Moving as fast as I could I crashed through the door leading to the stairwell and leap frogged my way down to the first floor exit. Bursting through the doors out into the parking lot I tripped over something and fell just as flood lights lit up the front of the building.
A voice called out, “Hold your fire!” shielding my eyes from the light I spotted a silhouette approaching me. ”Thought I might find you in a place like this, how’s it going Joe?” Still blinded by the light I covered my eyes, “Wells? How’d you find.” I was cut off by the sound of someone screaming as they came crashing out of a third floor window hitting the ground with a wet splat. Wells grabbed me by the arm shouting “Move!” as he pulled me out of the line of fire. More screams erupted from the building, the three wolves I’d seen were just the tip of the iceberg it turns out almost everyone who was on crystal that night had been turned.
Once my vision cleared I saw Wells and two others I didn’t recognize, there was a woman with a muscular build manning the mounted 50 cal. I found out later her name was Cali, the other one was named “Pike” he was a dark skinned guy with a medium build maybe an inch or so shorter than me, he was using a flamethrower to scorch anything moving. Gunfire echoed through the air for the next ten or fifteen minutes and by the time it was over there were 9 wolves in the pile, Pike using the flamethrower lit the bodies up then set the building on fire before we got out of there.
A little under an hour later we were pulling up to a house not far off the main highway, once we were all out of the truck Cali looked me over then turned to Wells, “Jesus Victor, this guy’s a junkie. Are you sure he’s worth the trouble?”
Wells chuckled while removing his body armor, “Yeah, Joe here’s a natural born immune, if you can believe that. Not sure how he slipped through the cracks but I found him by accident.” Pike walked over and took a seat on the tailgate, “This guy? Seriously? No offense but I think you might be losing it Vick.” Standing there listening to them talk about me was starting to get under my skin, Cali shoved me aside and threw some her gear in the bed of the truck. “Fuck off meth mouth, I don’t trust junkies. Vick this guy’s gonna get one of us killed, I say cut him loose.” Digging in his pocket and pulling out a pack of smokes Pike lit one up, blowing out a cloud he looked over at Cali, “I guarantee this guy jackrabbits on us the first chance he gets.”
Wells pulled a cooler from the back seat then opened it and grabbed a beer, “Refresh my memory, Cali didn’t I find you working as a waitress? And Pike when I found you weren’t you a forklift operator?” They both seemed irritated by the question, taking a gulp from his beer Wells looked at the two of them and shook his head. “Leave him alone, we’ve got more important shit to worry about.” The other two went inside and Wells walked over handing me a beer. “Seriously though Joe, take a fucking shower for God’s sake, you stink something awful. They’ll come around, get yourself situated, we’ve got work to do.”
Over the next few days Wells broke it all down for me, the wolves pulled a power play and wiped out most of the Foundation strongholds across the map. When they were done they flooded the streets with tainted dope, this wasn’t just about the drugs anymore. The wolves were trying to take over. According to Wells the wolves are led by a group of elders but only one of them was responsible for what was going on here in the states. Their leader here was a man named Peter Stumpp, he fought against the Foundation forcing all ware-wolves to be registered and tagged with tracking devices. When he lost, Stumpp along with a large number of his pack went off the grid. Over the years more and more wolves joined his cause, but recently their numbers started to decline the wolves were dying off.
We looked through tons of case files, there were accounts from all over the world clusters of wolves were vanishing. The one thing they all had in common was a reference to something called “Project Omega”. Wells and the others had never heard of the project and the majority of the information was either classified.
Leaning back in his chair Wells thumbed through a file for a second then stopped and got up from the table, “These files are trash, there’s nothing in here that’s going to help us.” Looking around the room all eyes were on me, pausing and stumbling through mv words I spoke up.
“I got my last few grams from the east side, there’s an old set of buildings everyone calls the pharmacy. A big guy named Red runs the show, he’s usually got a few people with him but I couldn’t tell you if they’re cooking there or not.” After a long drawn out discussion Cali was picked to take me to the pharmacy, she would hang back and stay out of site while I went in to cop and scout the place.
The second I got inside something felt wrong, the building was quiet. Moving through the hall I kept feeling like someone was watching me. When I got to the stairs I heard a door open behind me and turned to see a short skinny guy covered in tattoos holding a gun.
“You here to see Red?” I nodded and he motioned for me to turn around. “Put your hands on the wall and don’t move, I have to check everyone going up tonight.” After a quick pat down he stepped back and gave me an odd look, “Go on up, but make it quick.” When I got to the second floor I was checked one more time then escorted to Red, he was set up in a different room today, normally he’s in the big office at the end of the hall but today it was a small office with no windows. When I stepped in the door slammed shut behind me and I was left alone with Red who was standing in the center of the room. He looked me over with an angry scowl on his face, “How long have you worked for Wells?”
I knew there was no right answer, no matter what I said, so I lied. “Who’s Wells, I just came to grab a couple of G’s.”
In a flash Red crossed the room, grabbed me by the neck and lifted me off the floor. “I can smell him on you.” his voice shifted to a growl as the skin of his face split and his eyes turned an electric blue. Snarling and tossing me aside he continued his transformation. Scrambling up off the floor I bolted for the door only to be swatted and sent flying into the wall, before I could get back to my feet he came charging slamming into me sending us both crashing through the sheetrock into the next room. Tumbling through the wall put a little distance between us, quickly scanning for anything I could use as a weapon I spotted an empty vodka bottle and grabbed it just as the now fully wolfed out Red went on the attack. He was growling and swiping wildly, I managed to avoid him long enough to smash the bottle then jam what was left of it into his eye. Digging his claws into my left leg he snatched my feet from under me and I went down hard as he came in for a bite. Trying to shield my face and neck saved my life, as he sunk his teeth into my forearm I reached up with my other hand grabbing the hunk of glass sticking out of his eye and drove it further in. Releasing me Red let out an ear piercing yelp and backed off clawing at his face, crawling away and getting to my feet I spotted a window, ran and dove through it.
The one story drop wasn’t all that bad, the landing dislocated my shoulder and the concrete scraped away some skin but I was able to get up in time to see Red come crashing out of the window. There was no time to think, I ran as fast as I could towards the highway, even with a head start there was no way I could outrun him. With the street coming into view I could feel him breathing down the back of my neck and just as the streetlights were in reach there was a muzzle flash from across the highway. I felt the shot zip passed my ear and heard the meaty “Thwack” of it punching through Reds skull just before his body hit the ground. I didn’t look back, I ran till I got to the building Cali was in then stopped by the dumpster and threw up. By the time she made it to me Reds men were headed our way, “Get your shit together, we gotta go!” she shoved me then took off running towards the far end of the alley. I did what I could to keep up, when we finally made it to the car I turned to see Reds men, who were fully transformed at this point, come racing out behind us. Getting in as fast as possible, Cali cranked the engine and we tore out of there, the wolves chased us for a block or two then gave up as we sped away.
“They knew we were coming, Red asked me about Wells before he changed and attacked me!” Cali banged her fist against the steering wheel then paused, “Wait, what do you mean Red changed? What color were his eyes?” for a second I didn’t understand the question. “Blue, but why does it matter?” slowing down the car she pulled off the road and stopped. “What did Red look like before he transformed? Was he tall and fat with a bald head and big red beard?” I nodded my head and she sat back in her seat, “Holy shit, this is bad. Red as you called him is one of Stumpps generals, his real name is Harold Merck. If he’s here that means Stumpp’s here to, we have to get out of this city, there’s no way we can take on the Pack.” There wasn’t much conversation after that, when we got back to the others Cali told them everything. They argued back and forward for a while but in the end Cali and Pike chose to leave, really can’t say I blame them, if I had anywhere else to go I would have left to.
Before they left Pike helped snap my shoulder back in place, it might not have been 100% but at least I could use my arm again. I was in the kitchen cleaning and bandaging my wounds when Wells walked in, “There’s good news and bad news, the bad news is they’re right, we can’t beat the Pack without help. The good news is, we don’t have to beat them we just have to shut down their operation.” Once I was done wrapping my arm I popped a couple of pain killers and washed them down with the last of a warm beer.
“So what’s the plan here Wells? Even if we could shut them down, there’s nothing stopping them from setting up somewhere else.” He laughed and pulled up a chair, “We’re gonna make them come after us, we hit them hard and fast, take as much dope off the streets as possible and who knows we might even luck up and find the cook house.”
Chapter 3: The war on drugs
We’ve been raiding dope spots all over the city for the past two months, we found three small cook houses and burned them to the ground but not before Wells collected all the money and I grabbed as much product as I could carry. The city was going nuts, the Pack was waging a war against the police and we were waging a war against them.
“We got a rough one tonight Joe, this is our first lab. There’s no walking in, this is wet work everybody in the building has to go, are you ready?” Up until now I hadn’t had to do much, normally I would just go in and buy, get the lay out and leave, Wells would come in later and wipe the place out. Now it was finally time to get my hands dirty and to be honest, I couldn’t wait.
Thumping out my cigarette, I finished strapping on my body armor and nodded my head, “Am I ready? Are you ready? I’ve been waiting for this shit!” Wells narrowed his eyes at me shaking his head, “Are you high right now?! I swear to God if you fuck this up, I’ll leave you there.” Laughing, picking up the rest of my gear I looked at Wells, “Of course I’m high, what kind of a question is that? I don’t see how you can do this sober.”
Two hours later we were trekking through the wood closing in on the lab, the place was tucked away far from anything resembling a road, if you didn’t know it was there you would ever find it. It was pitch black out there, if it weren’t for the night vision specs you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. When we caught site of the building the first thing I noticed were the guards, two massive wolves paced the perimeter sniffing the air and scanning the tree line for intruders. Since they hadn’t sniffed us out yet we figured this was as close as we could get, once we had our shots lined up we counted down from three then took the shots in unison. The second they hit the ground the place came to life, more wolves poured out of the building. Going full auto I swept left and Wells peeled off to the right barking out “Keep them between us!” we were only able to drop a few more before the ones that hadn’t turned starting shooting back. Caught up in my own firefight I lost track of Wells, bullets tore through the trees around me as I did my best to stay behind the thickest of them and continued to move in. Laying lead on my target I heard the click of death and stopped to reload, as I popped in another magazine a low heavy growl cut through the darkness behind me. (Shit) Before I could turn around I was blindsided, the bastard slammed into me and sent my body tumbling through the dirt, I lost my rifle and night vision on impact but when I sprung to my feet I pulled my sidearm. The sound of gunfire in the distance told me Wells was still alive but I couldn’t worry about him right then, the wolf growled and paced around me in the darkness, stalking me while I slowly adjusted to the night. The moonlight coming through the trees reflected off its eyes just before it attacked.
Stepping backwards I emptied the clip on that thing but it didn’t stop, the first swipe ripped the flesh off the back of my hand and sent the gun flying. Sidestepping and pulling the knife from my belt I tried to size it up, this thing was huge. In a flash of grey fur its second strike hit me before I could make a move, razor sharp claws sliced through face and spun me off my feet, crawling away as fast as I could I tried to get up but it was on me. Lifting me off the ground before slamming me back down it rag dolled my body, breaking bones until I blacked out…
They say when you have a near death experience your life flashes in front of your eyes, that’s bullshit. I didn’t see anything, all I remember is darkness and silence right up until a surge of electricity pulsed through my body, there were flashes of white light and I heard a voice call out “Clear” just before another wave of energy hit me. The next thing I know I’m waking up in a hospital room with a broken leg, cracked ribs a fractured arm and a severe concussion. On top of all of that I narrowly avoided losing my right eye and was left with a set of scars that run from my jawline to my forehead. I asked everyone who came into my room how I got there but no one would give me an answer, after a few days Wells showed up.
“I can’t believe you tried to fight a Natural with a knife, you are a fucking Wildman.” He laughed and pulled a chair over next to my bed then took a seat. “I’ve never seen the wolf that kicked your ass, what do you remember?” No matter how much I tried to replay it in my head I couldn’t remember much, the only thing I knew for sure was it was grey. Wells said he saw me fighting with it but by the time he got there it was gone, he abandoned the mission and got me out of there as quickly as he could but not without getting torn up pretty badly himself. We weren’t able to shut the lab down, we barely made it out alive, the only good that came out of it was the Pack put a price on our heads, Wells plan worked….

Chapter 1: Let’s get high
It’s not easy to admit that you have a problem, for a lot of years I drifted through life looking for my next high, in most cases that would be your typical junkies background story leading up to his or her recovery. Only I never recovered, instead I just replaced all my addictions with one really fucked up past time, if you can call it that. I suppose you noticed I said all my addictions, I am what I like to call a well -rounded dope fiend, coke, heroine, meth and a list of pills that would make a pharmacist shit himself, you name it I’m on it, if you got it I want it, and that’s exactly what led me here.
My name isn’t all that important, and given what I do for a living these days it’s probably best that you don’t know. So for now you can call me Joe, this is an insane situation so I won’t blame you if you don’t believe me, but nonetheless for better or worse this is some real shit. I was living in Oregon when I learned the truth, I’m not talking today’s Oregon with super clean product and organized distributers, I’m talking the mom and pop days, when any tweeker with a chemistry set was cooking up crank in the bath tub. I had a pal named Willy that I used to get high with, we used to play this game, we would bet on which blast would be the last because back then the wrong shit could kill you, anyway uh, we had got our hands on some unbelievable smoke from a RV park in Dayville and we were driving back to my place when my car broke down. I know, I know there’s load of stories that start exactly like that, but I can’t make this up, that’s exactly what happened. To tell the truth I knew the car was trash and making that drive was a bad idea but when getting sick isn’t an option you’ll go a long way to get what you need.
The car rolled to a stop half way through “Fossil Beds” on the 19, Willy looked over at me and laughed, “I told you, I knew we should have bet on it, what are we gonna do now Joe? I’m not in the mood for your bullshit, we both know you can’t fix this car, we might as well start walking now and save ourselves the trouble.” I had to laugh, he was right, we both lit up and took a few hits before we got out and started the long walk home. I don’t know if any of you have ever been through the Fossil Beds, it’s a gorgeous place in the day time but when the sun goes down, I swear it’s the deepest darkest place on earth.
After about an hour of walking I glanced over at Willy who was smoking a cigarette and franticly scanning the darkness around us, “You ok man? What the fuck is wrong with you?” he took a long drag off his cigarette and stopped walking still looking around. “Can you smell that?” he sniffed the air “It smells like” Willy tilted his head back and took in a deep breath “It smells like food” his voice slowly turned to a growl as he continued sniffing the air. I thought he was just screwing around until he brought his head down and I saw his eyes, they were oversized and bright yellow, stubble was sprouting from his normally shiny bald head. For a second I thought it was the drugs, but when he started tearing away his face and howling like an animal, I ran. The high made me feel like I was The Flash, blazing a trail across the planet, in reality years of drug abuse and bad life choices meant I was practically moving in slow motion. It didn’t matter though, I took a chance and glanced back over my shoulder to see Willy laying on the ground not moving, I stopped and went back still partially thinking I was high and this was a bad trip but when I made it back to where he was laying I saw a pool of blood forming under him. By the way he was positioned his back was to me, I had to step around to see his face and when I did my brain couldn’t process what I was seeing. His skull was split and there protruding from the shredded flesh and shattered bone was the partially formed skull of a wolf or should I say a ware-wolf? I’m not really sure which is correct. I’m not proud of what I did next but since Willy was dead he wasn’t going to need his dope, so I dug in his pocket and took it then got the hell out of there…….
By the time I got home I was losing it, I stayed up for the next two days blazing my life away, everything was such a blur I didn’t know what was real or imagined, when someone knocked on my door I almost lost it. I ran to my bedroom closet and grabbed my gun as whoever it was kept knocking until I finally yelled out “Stop knocking! I coming for Christ’s sake, just give me a fucking second!” rushing through my apartment I tripped over a shoe and dropped the gun which went off and shot a hole in my wall. “Holy Shit!” A familiar voice yelped on the other side of the door, “Joe, man it’s me Willy, what the hell are you doing?” I almost threw up when I recognized his voice, I scrambled to my feet, opened the door and there he was, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, “Are you really here right now?” I stuttered through the words dreading the response. Willy looked at me for a second then punched me in the face knocking me flat on my ass, “Of course I’m really here, you piece of shit! Why the fuck did you leave me on the side of the road? And you robbed me, me! Your best, scratch that, your only fucking friend and you robbed me! Give me my money or my smoke or I swear to God I’m gonna fucking kill you!”
Fear, paranoia and meth are a lethal combination, seeing Willy standing in my doorway when I clearly saw him die two nights before was just enough to send me right over the edge. Sitting on the floor with blood gushing from my nose, I grabbed my gun and pointed it at him, he narrowed his eyes at me and stepped back, “what are you gonna” he was cut short when I pulled the trigger…..Blood and gunpowder (a smell I would eventually come to love) drifted in the air as Willy fell face down in my living room, the bullet tore through his neck and blew out a part of his spine on its way out, it was a kill shot (and a damn good one if you ask me) he was dead before he hit the ground. I got myself together, the cops would be showing up soon and the last thing I needed was another arrest this one would probably get me life, I rushed to my bedroom and started stuffing a backpack with clothes and any cash I had in the house. I was in the middle of ransacking my room searching for a few grams I stashed when a low growl rumbled through the room, heavy breathing and a guttural huffing sound froze me in my tracks. Before I could turn around it was on me, snarling, biting tearing into me I caught glimpses of bristly black fur and flashes of bright yellow eyes but I hadn’t really seen what was attacking me, I’m tall 6’6 and this thing towered over me by at least a foot, it rag-dolled me around the room slamming me off the walls, but after smoking meth for two days straight I felt like superman and my fight or flight mode was in overdrive. I slammed into a wall and came down on the floor hard, in my head I bounced right back up to my feet, but I’m fairly certain that’s not what really happened, anyway, I got back on my feet and what was standing in front of me was the most amazing and terrifying thing I had ever seen in my life. It was a full on, howl at the moon, 7 foot tall ware-wolf, it was bleeding from a hole in its throat and looking at me like I was dinner. I can’t rationally explain what I did next so I’ll just tell you, I yelled, I screamed as loud as I could, “Come on!” and it roared back before making that guttural huffing sound again and collapsing on the floor, in my mind I had just defeated a beast from hell, so I might have gone a little primal.
There I was covered in blood, pounding my chest and screaming at the ware-wolf corpse on my bedroom floor, when the sweetest voice in the world cut through the madness. It was Shelby, she’s my insanely hot neighbor, I’m just bullshitting you, Shelby’s my weird ass next door neighbor, don’t get me wrong she’s pretty and a very sweet girl, I smoked a little weed with her from time to time, but she’s not insanely hot, (I just thought it sounded cooler) she’s just a little odd if you ask me.
“Are you ok in there Joe?” She called out nervously peeping around the corner into my bedroom. “I heard all the commotion and came to” Shelby paused when she spotted the mass of blood and fur, “Holy shit, is that what I think it is?” she glanced up at me and gasped,” Oh my god, what happened in here? You’re bleeding, we have to get you to the hospital,” the sound of police sirens in the distance slightly brought me back to reality for a second, “I can’t go to jail again Shelby, they’ll lock me up for good this time, let’s go back to your place and I’ll get cleaned up, when the cops leave I’m out of your hair. Please Shelby, you gotta do this for me.”
She couldn’t stop looking at the dead ware-wolf on the floor “Hell no! I’m not getting involved in this. But if you don’t want to go to jail, you better get moving before the cops show up.” I didn’t really have much of a choice but I realized in that moment that Shelby was seeing the ware-wolf that meant it was real and I wasn’t insane. I couldn’t help but smile at the thought and climbed out of the window, the second my feet hit the ground I took off running….
I held up in a fleabag motel for the next few days, some of my wounds were infected and I was falling apart. I watched the news almost religiously for any signs of what went down, but there wasn’t a single word mentioned. About a week later there’s a knock at my door. ”Open up Joe, we need to talk.” I didn’t recognize the voice, but it didn’t matter anymore I was sick, I hadn’t fixed in days and I was burning up from the infection. I staggered over to the door, unlocked it and swung it open, “I’m detective Victor Wells, mind if I have a word with you?” he winced from the reek that was wafting out of my room and pointed to the bed “Why don’t you step over to the bed and take a seat for me.” Wells stepped into my room and closed the door behind him. “I’m going to get straight to the point, this is all off the books. That thing you killed in your apartment is an ongoing problem in this area and I need you to take me to where you got your dope. By the stink of you I can tell you’ve been bitten, so I’ll give you a little advice. You need to see a doctor, getting bit by a ware-wolf doesn’t turn you into one, this aint the movies son! That infection will kill you, the only way to become a ware-wolf is to be born one and that’s exactly why I need you to take me to where you got that crystal.”
I sat there in a daze for a few seconds, it was so hard to focus, the room was swaying and my heart was pounding. Detective Wells shook his head and dug in his pocket pulling out a Narcan inhaler then tossing it to me. ”Take a hit off that, get yourself together and meet me outside. I’m going to get you stitched up then you’re taking me to where I need to go.” Wells turned to walk out of the room and paused, “In case you get the idea to run just keep in mind nobodies looking for you, so if I shoot you in the head, no one cares. Now hurry up we’ve got a lot to do.”……
A short trip, a few stitches and a shot of morphine later, I’m riding shotgun headed for the RV-park in Dayville. Wells started up with the questions right away, “So the night you scored what happened?”
I didn’t really want to talk about it but I figured it had to be better than getting shot in the face. ”Me and Willy rode out to the RV-park and copped from a guy named Al in trailer 18, on the way back my car broke down so we torched up and started walking, Willy started acting crazy then he got sick and passed out. I didn’t see him for two days until he popped up at my apartment and attacked me.”
The expression on his face changed from agitated to curious, “Wait, so your telling me that you smoked the same crystal as Willy and nothing happened to you?” he nodded his head like he was rolling it over in his mind, ”This can’t be right” he muttered to himself.
I couldn’t take it anymore, “Look Wells, since I’m spilling my guts over here, would you mind filling me in on what the hell‘s going on?” The detective chuckled. ”The ware-wolves moved into this area a few months ago, since then we’ve been receiving reports of wolf activity outside their designated areas. The strange thing about it is, all the reports were from civilians claiming someone in their household turned into a wolf and either died on the spot or attacked them then died during the scuffle. The one thing they all had in common was they all had a significant amount of methamphetamine in their blood, my theory is one of these geniuses found a way to turn normies into wolves using meth.”
I sat there staring out the window taking it all in, this couldn’t really be happening, “So, you’re telling me ware-wolves are real? And they’re cooking crystal that turns regular people into more ware-wolves? Yeah, I’m gonna need you stop the car and let me out, the trailer park is few miles ahead on the left and if it’s all the same to you, Ide really rather not be involved in all this.”
The detective pressed down on the accelerator, “Afraid it’s not that simple pal, the fact that the drug didn’t affect you means you’re one of us. If I don’t turn you in I’ll lose my hunting license, and I love my job so like it or not you’re coming with me.”
“One of you? What are you talking about? And what do you mean, turn me in? Am I going to jail? This is crazy, I didn’t do anything wrong, you have to let me go, just pull over and I’ll walk back, I swear you’ll never see me again.”
Wells shook his head. ”Calm down, you’re not going to jail, all immunes like you and me have to be registered with the “Foundation” once they run a few tests and get your info you’ll be free to go. If I were you Ide think about getting onboard, the pay is great and you’ll be doing what you do best, all you’d have to do is get high and report anomalies when you find them, clean-up crew’s or independents like me do the rest.”
The trailer park was coming into view, Wells pulled off the road then got out and went to the trunk. After a few minutes he came back wearing body armor and carrying a shotgun, “when the shooting starts you get down and stay down until it gets quiet.” He pulled down the visor and slid out a business card. ”If I don’t come back in 30 minutes go to the address on this card and give them this location.” Wells threw the car in drive and we sped into the RV Park, we pulled right up to trailer 18 and stopped, the detective hopped out then strolled up to the front door kicking it in on the first try.
After a minute or two Al came crashing through the window and landed on the hood of the car, it wasn’t long before Wells came rushing out to grab him. “Where are they!?” Al was a bloody mess but Wells didn’t care, he beat him and continued with the questions. “Where’s the cook house, and who’s running it?!”
Through cracked teeth and a broken nose Al laughed, “Even if I knew I wouldn’t tell you, so arrest me or get the fuck out of here!” Wells stepped back and checked a round into the chamber,” Arrest you? Do I look like I came here to arrest somebody? Give me your connect and I’ll make this quick.” Al laughed again and spit in the detective’s direction, “Fuck you!” Wells shrugged his shoulders, “have it your way.” He took aim and fired, from the knee down Al’s right leg basically exploded. “Last chance dipshit, give me your supplier and you might live through this.” Al rolled around on the ground screaming, the detective adjusted his aim, “I’ll take that as a no” he pulled the trigger and Al’s head splattered across the ground. Wells turned and walked back into the trailer, after a few minutes he came back with a cellphone, we sat there as he went through every number until he found what he was looking for.
“Well pal, it’s about time I turned you in, I can’t take you with me on this next one without you being registered with the Foundation, but if you decide to join up give me a call I could use a guy like you.” We drove for hours until we came to an unmarked office building in the middle of the city, “Go to the front desk and tell them your name, they already know you’re coming the rest is up to you, see you around Joe.”
Obviously I took the offer, getting paid to get high and travel was too good to pass up, right now I’m on the way to link up with Wells for my first official raid as a member of the Foundation. I’ll be back soon with all the details, according to the Foundation something big is going down all field operatives are being activated, it looks like ill have a lot to share real soon, so until next time stay alert, stay alive, things are about to heat up.

 Chapter 2: Fangs and fur 

We were fed false information and the raid turned out to be a trap. Wells and I were two of the few to come out that situation alive. When we made it back to central we found the building in flames, from what I could tell no one made it out. With the Foundation gone there was no reason to stick around, so I split. That was a few weeks ago, I’m not exactly sure where Wells went after that but I ended up in Texas. I was a few days in on a bender when all hell broke loose, it’d been a crazy night and I was crashing at this little spot called “The Alley”. The Alley is an old set of abandoned apartments tucked away on the edge of one of the tougher neighborhoods, most people avoid the place due to the fact that bodies turn up there pretty frequently. It was close to 3 in the morning when it happened, an older guy everyone called “Nemo” started screaming at the top of his lungs, staggering into his room I found him and two others butt naked clawing at the walls.
“Nemo, what the hell’s going on in here?” He turned to me smiling, his eyes were bucked and he’d pretty much chewed through his bottom lip causing blood and drool to pour down the front of his already stained shirt. ”Hey Joe, you’re right on time.” his body started to shake and I could hear his bones cracking as he moved. “I’m so.” He paused licking his lips, “Hungry.” Dropping to his knees he started ripping out fistfuls of his hair, as he did the other two started tearing themselves apart tossing bloody clumps of shredded flesh against the walls. I didn’t waste another second, turning to run I could hear growling mixed with the meaty cracking of bones snapping as I tore down the hall. Before I could make it to the end of the corridor I glanced back to see the wall come tumbling down filling the hall with dust as three freshly turned ware-wolves came rushing towards me. I saw one unlucky lady pop her head out to see what was going on, one of the smaller wolves grabbed her by the face snatching her out of her room before the others joined in. They moved like a pack, each tearing their share from her as the screams became a wet gurgling masked by the sound of them ripping her apart.
Moving as fast as I could I crashed through the door leading to the stairwell and leap frogged my way down to the first floor exit. Bursting through the doors out into the parking lot I tripped over something and fell just as flood lights lit up the front of the building.
A voice called out, “Hold your fire!” shielding my eyes from the light I spotted a silhouette approaching me. ”Thought I might find you in a place like this, how’s it going Joe?” Still blinded by the light I covered my eyes, “Wells? How’d you find.” I was cut off by the sound of someone screaming as they came crashing out of a third floor window hitting the ground with a wet splat. Wells grabbed me by the arm shouting “Move!” as he pulled me out of the line of fire. More screams erupted from the building, the three wolves I’d seen were just the tip of the iceberg it turns out almost everyone who was on crystal that night had been turned.
Once my vision cleared I saw Wells and two others I didn’t recognize, there was a woman with a muscular build manning the mounted 50 cal. I found out later her name was Cali, the other one was named “Pike” he was a dark skinned guy with a medium build maybe an inch or so shorter than me, he was using a flamethrower to scorch anything moving. Gunfire echoed through the air for the next ten or fifteen minutes and by the time it was over there were 9 wolves in the pile, Pike using the flamethrower lit the bodies up then set the building on fire before we got out of there.
A little under an hour later we were pulling up to a house not far off the main highway, once we were all out of the truck Cali looked me over then turned to Wells, “Jesus Victor, this guy’s a junkie. Are you sure he’s worth the trouble?”
Wells chuckled while removing his body armor, “Yeah, Joe here’s a natural born immune, if you can believe that. Not sure how he slipped through the cracks but I found him by accident.” Pike walked over and took a seat on the tailgate, “This guy? Seriously? No offense but I think you might be losing it Vick.” Standing there listening to them talk about me was starting to get under my skin, Cali shoved me aside and threw some her gear in the bed of the truck. “Fuck off meth mouth, I don’t trust junkies. Vick this guy’s gonna get one of us killed, I say cut him loose.” Digging in his pocket and pulling out a pack of smokes Pike lit one up, blowing out a cloud he looked over at Cali, “I guarantee this guy jackrabbits on us the first chance he gets.”
Wells pulled a cooler from the back seat then opened it and grabbed a beer, “Refresh my memory, Cali didn’t I find you working as a waitress? And Pike when I found you weren’t you a forklift operator?” They both seemed irritated by the question, taking a gulp from his beer Wells looked at the two of them and shook his head. “Leave him alone, we’ve got more important shit to worry about.” The other two went inside and Wells walked over handing me a beer. “Seriously though Joe, take a fucking shower for God’s sake, you stink something awful. They’ll come around, get yourself situated, we’ve got work to do.”
Over the next few days Wells broke it all down for me, the wolves pulled a power play and wiped out most of the Foundation strongholds across the map. When they were done they flooded the streets with tainted dope, this wasn’t just about the drugs anymore. The wolves were trying to take over. According to Wells the wolves are led by a group of elders but only one of them was responsible for what was going on here in the states. Their leader here was a man named Peter Stumpp, he fought against the Foundation forcing all ware-wolves to be registered and tagged with tracking devices. When he lost, Stumpp along with a large number of his pack went off the grid. Over the years more and more wolves joined his cause, but recently their numbers started to decline the wolves were dying off.
We looked through tons of case files, there were accounts from all over the world clusters of wolves were vanishing. The one thing they all had in common was a reference to something called “Project Omega”. Wells and the others had never heard of the project and the majority of the information was either classified.
Leaning back in his chair Wells thumbed through a file for a second then stopped and got up from the table, “These files are trash, there’s nothing in here that’s going to help us.” Looking around the room all eyes were on me, pausing and stumbling through mv words I spoke up.
“I got my last few grams from the east side, there’s an old set of buildings everyone calls the pharmacy. A big guy named Red runs the show, he’s usually got a few people with him but I couldn’t tell you if they’re cooking there or not.” After a long drawn out discussion Cali was picked to take me to the pharmacy, she would hang back and stay out of site while I went in to cop and scout the place.
The second I got inside something felt wrong, the building was quiet. Moving through the hall I kept feeling like someone was watching me. When I got to the stairs I heard a door open behind me and turned to see a short skinny guy covered in tattoos holding a gun.
“You here to see Red?” I nodded and he motioned for me to turn around. “Put your hands on the wall and don’t move, I have to check everyone going up tonight.” After a quick pat down he stepped back and gave me an odd look, “Go on up, but make it quick.” When I got to the second floor I was checked one more time then escorted to Red, he was set up in a different room today, normally he’s in the big office at the end of the hall but today it was a small office with no windows. When I stepped in the door slammed shut behind me and I was left alone with Red who was standing in the center of the room. He looked me over with an angry scowl on his face, “How long have you worked for Wells?”
I knew there was no right answer, no matter what I said, so I lied. “Who’s Wells, I just came to grab a couple of G’s.”
In a flash Red crossed the room, grabbed me by the neck and lifted me off the floor. “I can smell him on you.” his voice shifted to a growl as the skin of his face split and his eyes turned an electric blue. Snarling and tossing me aside he continued his transformation. Scrambling up off the floor I bolted for the door only to be swatted and sent flying into the wall, before I could get back to my feet he came charging slamming into me sending us both crashing through the sheetrock into the next room. Tumbling through the wall put a little distance between us, quickly scanning for anything I could use as a weapon I spotted an empty vodka bottle and grabbed it just as the now fully wolfed out Red went on the attack. He was growling and swiping wildly, I managed to avoid him long enough to smash the bottle then jam what was left of it into his eye. Digging his claws into my left leg he snatched my feet from under me and I went down hard as he came in for a bite. Trying to shield my face and neck saved my life, as he sunk his teeth into my forearm I reached up with my other hand grabbing the hunk of glass sticking out of his eye and drove it further in. Releasing me Red let out an ear piercing yelp and backed off clawing at his face, crawling away and getting to my feet I spotted a window, ran and dove through it.
The one story drop wasn’t all that bad, the landing dislocated my shoulder and the concrete scraped away some skin but I was able to get up in time to see Red come crashing out of the window. There was no time to think, I ran as fast as I could towards the highway, even with a head start there was no way I could outrun him. With the street coming into view I could feel him breathing down the back of my neck and just as the streetlights were in reach there was a muzzle flash from across the highway. I felt the shot zip passed my ear and heard the meaty “Thwack” of it punching through Reds skull just before his body hit the ground. I didn’t look back, I ran till I got to the building Cali was in then stopped by the dumpster and threw up. By the time she made it to me Reds men were headed our way, “Get your shit together, we gotta go!” she shoved me then took off running towards the far end of the alley. I did what I could to keep up, when we finally made it to the car I turned to see Reds men, who were fully transformed at this point, come racing out behind us. Getting in as fast as possible, Cali cranked the engine and we tore out of there, the wolves chased us for a block or two then gave up as we sped away.
“They knew we were coming, Red asked me about Wells before he changed and attacked me!” Cali banged her fist against the steering wheel then paused, “Wait, what do you mean Red changed? What color were his eyes?” for a second I didn’t understand the question. “Blue, but why does it matter?” slowing down the car she pulled off the road and stopped. “What did Red look like before he transformed? Was he tall and fat with a bald head and big red beard?” I nodded my head and she sat back in her seat, “Holy shit, this is bad. Red as you called him is one of Stumpps generals, his real name is Harold Merck. If he’s here that means Stumpp’s here to, we have to get out of this city, there’s no way we can take on the Pack.” There wasn’t much conversation after that, when we got back to the others Cali told them everything. They argued back and forward for a while but in the end Cali and Pike chose to leave, really can’t say I blame them, if I had anywhere else to go I would have left to.
Before they left Pike helped snap my shoulder back in place, it might not have been 100% but at least I could use my arm again. I was in the kitchen cleaning and bandaging my wounds when Wells walked in, “There’s good news and bad news, the bad news is they’re right, we can’t beat the Pack without help. The good news is, we don’t have to beat them we just have to shut down their operation.” Once I was done wrapping my arm I popped a couple of pain killers and washed them down with the last of a warm beer.
“So what’s the plan here Wells? Even if we could shut them down, there’s nothing stopping them from setting up somewhere else.” He laughed and pulled up a chair, “We’re gonna make them come after us, we hit them hard and fast, take as much dope off the streets as possible and who knows we might even luck up and find the cook house.”
Chapter 3: The war on drugs
We’ve been raiding dope spots all over the city for the past two months, we found three small cook houses and burned them to the ground but not before Wells collected all the money and I grabbed as much product as I could carry. The city was going nuts, the Pack was waging a war against the police and we were waging a war against them.
“We got a rough one tonight Joe, this is our first lab. There’s no walking in, this is wet work everybody in the building has to go, are you ready?” Up until now I hadn’t had to do much, normally I would just go in and buy, get the lay out and leave, Wells would come in later and wipe the place out. Now it was finally time to get my hands dirty and to be honest, I couldn’t wait.
Thumping out my cigarette, I finished strapping on my body armor and nodded my head, “Am I ready? Are you ready? I’ve been waiting for this shit!” Wells narrowed his eyes at me shaking his head, “Are you high right now?! I swear to God if you fuck this up, I’ll leave you there.” Laughing, picking up the rest of my gear I looked at Wells, “Of course I’m high, what kind of a question is that? I don’t see how you can do this sober.”
Two hours later we were trekking through the wood closing in on the lab, the place was tucked away far from anything resembling a road, if you didn’t know it was there you would ever find it. It was pitch black out there, if it weren’t for the night vision specs you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. When we caught site of the building the first thing I noticed were the guards, two massive wolves paced the perimeter sniffing the air and scanning the tree line for intruders. Since they hadn’t sniffed us out yet we figured this was as close as we could get, once we had our shots lined up we counted down from three then took the shots in unison. The second they hit the ground the place came to life, more wolves poured out of the building. Going full auto I swept left and Wells peeled off to the right barking out “Keep them between us!” we were only able to drop a few more before the ones that hadn’t turned starting shooting back. Caught up in my own firefight I lost track of Wells, bullets tore through the trees around me as I did my best to stay behind the thickest of them and continued to move in. Laying lead on my target I heard the click of death and stopped to reload, as I popped in another magazine a low heavy growl cut through the darkness behind me. (Shit) Before I could turn around I was blindsided, the bastard slammed into me and sent my body tumbling through the dirt, I lost my rifle and night vision on impact but when I sprung to my feet I pulled my sidearm. The sound of gunfire in the distance told me Wells was still alive but I couldn’t worry about him right then, the wolf growled and paced around me in the darkness, stalking me while I slowly adjusted to the night. The moonlight coming through the trees reflected off its eyes just before it attacked.
Stepping backwards I emptied the clip on that thing but it didn’t stop, the first swipe ripped the flesh off the back of my hand and sent the gun flying. Sidestepping and pulling the knife from my belt I tried to size it up, this thing was huge. In a flash of grey fur its second strike hit me before I could make a move, razor sharp claws sliced through face and spun me off my feet, crawling away as fast as I could I tried to get up but it was on me. Lifting me off the ground before slamming me back down it rag dolled my body, breaking bones until I blacked out…
They say when you have a near death experience your life flashes in front of your eyes, that’s bullshit. I didn’t see anything, all I remember is darkness and silence right up until a surge of electricity pulsed through my body, there were flashes of white light and I heard a voice call out “Clear” just before another wave of energy hit me. The next thing I know I’m waking up in a hospital room with a broken leg, cracked ribs a fractured arm and a severe concussion. On top of all of that I narrowly avoided losing my right eye and was left with a set of scars that run from my jawline to my forehead. I asked everyone who came into my room how I got there but no one would give me an answer, after a few days Wells showed up.
“I can’t believe you tried to fight a Natural with a knife, you are a fucking Wildman.” He laughed and pulled a chair over next to my bed then took a seat. “I’ve never seen the wolf that kicked your ass, what do you remember?” No matter how much I tried to replay it in my head I couldn’t remember much, the only thing I knew for sure was it was grey. Wells said he saw me fighting with it but by the time he got there it was gone, he abandoned the mission and got me out of there as quickly as he could but not without getting torn up pretty badly himself. We weren’t able to shut the lab down, we barely made it out alive, the only good that came out of it was the Pack put a price on our heads, Wells plan worked….