03

“Slave?” I asked, widening my eyes. "No, sir. I'm not a slave. I'm looking for medicines or herbs. I'm looking for anything that can heal my people. Our people."

The stranger laughed. It wasn't a normal laugh. It wasn't pure debauchery. It was a sound that made me tremble and maybe my knees would fail if I tried to stand up. However, the man didn't seem at all willing to let me go. On the contrary, he was now

Taking it into the military barracks, we were followed by all the other men.

"Do you even know where you got into, little girl?" asked the stranger, showing yellowish teeth as he smiled widely. I felt the evil, I felt the worst intentions he showed to have, and I almost emptied my bladder. "Your people would never compare to mine. We are what you fear. And you are food for us. You're nothing but fresh meat now."

A long time ago I had learned to fear men. With the lack of food and the increasingly uncertain days, men showed their true faces. There were no laws to protect women. No authority stood between us and the impulses of men. And being there, surrounded by an entire community of big and grumpy men, I knew I wouldn't be safe.

"Please," I begged when the man let me go and I stumbled into the place. Now the circle of people was even bigger. Eyes of all colors, with that intrinsic evil in their irises. I watched those people, in search of authority. In search of anyone who believed my word. "I need to... I want to talk to your superior."

Silence has been established. Not that those people seemed to talk all the time. Not that any of them made any sound. And I thought I was even more in trouble asking for that. By invoking the right to talk to anyone other than those people.

But then I felt it. It was something on earth. Something that made the ground below my feet tremble. For a moment, I thought about taking refuge and protecting myself from the disaster of nature that would be coming. But it wasn't a disaster. And it was not natural at all.

My eyes turned to the entrance to the shed, where the circle of people had opened a tortuous path as if pushed sharply to the sides. And maybe they had been, since now a man had appeared among them.

Or rather, a creature with a human body and much bigger than any ordinary person. A creature with a beauty that no human would be able to flaunt in those years of misery. The dark hair framed a strong and angular face, contrasted with eyes of significant gold and reached the wide and strong shoulders.

I lost my voice. For some reason, I couldn't move as the unknown approached. And that instinct that asked me to run now begged me to kneel and ask for mercy for a quick death.

He was lethal, and, unlike the others, he didn't need a gun to make that clear. He was frowning and didn't need faces to show it. And I staggered when he covered the sun on the horizon line with his silhouette and stared at me.

"Why is a human lost in my pack?" he questioned, performing that same head gesture that everyone else had done before. In a way, the gesture was more animalistic made by him. "Or, if I heard well, why is our human food still alive enough to speak and make demands?"

"Pack?" I asked almost in a scream. I watched those people. There was not the slightest sign of hair. I imagined that the werewolves were more like the old college books.

Cold shock swept me away. My eyes widened and fear ran through my body. A pack. Werewolves. Humans who were no longer human. Or maybe they were, until the next full moon, which would reach its peak that night. In theory, much was said about the influence of the moon on wild instincts, and I knew that despite being reportedly dead, I could not give up.

I would use my last moments of life to achieve my goal.

The new stranger decided to ignore my presence and just glanced at my captor, and the man stiffened as a sign of respect.

“Take her to the warehouse. Remove the skin, and a few pieces of meat, and hang the rest for our wild friends. Not everything in human flesh is pleasant to eat, you know." The commander gave me a look from head to toe. "Although I doubt that at least some piece of this human will act to appreciate after seeing them eating so much sand and pollution. Just have fun with the toy sent by the stars, and don't delay."

"What were you looking for here?" I asked no one in particular.

I knew how stupid that was. Given the information about those people, I should have been smart enough to run away and not look back. I was skeptical, but I was seeing with my own eyes that those were not ordinary humans. And the fact that only the man who had captured me, and the new tall stranger were speaking, made me aware of an absolute hierarchy.

The arrogant man kept ignoring my presence.

"Cook your tongue with vegetables to take to the puppies, since it can barely contain this annoying human voice, who knows, maybe they'll talk earlier?"

There was a tense murmur of agreement, and something told me about those people - or creatures - being there passing through or also looking for something. Not even the death threat prevented me from grabbing the wide arm of that authoritarian man, holding it with both hands.