Chapter 4. The Most Unlikely Luck.
It was a beautiful fall morning, the sun shone brightly and the air was cool and crisp as a young couple laughed joyfully on their way down the mountain trail. The small narrow trail they followed down from the mountains wasn't much wider than a caravan. Something they both could appreciate as they went about their frequent hikes up the mountain.
The man stopped for a moment to rest, his breath coming out in ragged gasps as he dropped his pack with a heavy thump. He reached down and pulled out a bottle to take a deep, appreciative swig of water from it. The ice long since melted, leaving the water perfectly cool. His breath a cloudy mist in the cool air as he downed another swig of water, his chest heaved as he struggled to catch his breath.
"Getting tired already, Lucian?" The short female bounced over to his side, an energetic skip in her step. There was a light of mischief or challenge in her eyes as her chest heaved with every breath. Not that I'd ever admit it out loud, but I'm just as tired. She did her best to hide her own exhaustion by quickly wiping the thin layer of sweat off from her forehead with the back of her sleeve.
Lucian smirked. You can't anything from me. Stubborn woman, you're probably more tired than I am. His black hair was cut short, and he wore a ball cap on to block out some sunlight from his face. "You wish Evelyn, I can keep going if your short butt can." His response was in defiance. I can't let her win today, not on an actual date for once. That would be ridiculous. We may be married, but I can't let her show me up. After all, she was maybe five feet on her best day. Whereas he was almost six foot three. It would be embarrassing if he had to stop for a break before the shorty.
She laughed full and heartily at his defiance, the vapor filling the space between them. "You know, it is okay for a big bad husband to admit he's actually tired and wants a break before the short, petite wife." Evelyn's voice was light and joyful as she spoke to her husband.
Lucian grinned as he shook his head. "Nah, I can't have you thinking I've gotten old." He took another swig and placed the bottle back in his black pack and threw it over his shoulder. "Come on baby, let's get going home." He nudged her side as he walked past her. He would prove who was the better hiker.
She shook her head and said nothing as she followed her sexy man beast. He was always determined to outdo her in their competitions. It was adorable, this competitive side of him. She felt a slight burning pain in her shoulders as she adjusted the way the pack rested.
They continued through the trail for a couple of hours, enjoying the peace and serenity of the path as the birds and insects of the forest filled the silence between them.
As they continued on throughout the morning they heard a loud boom off in the distance that echoed throughout the forest. It was deep, rumbling and seemed to reverberate through their bones. The trees started to shake as leaves and branches fell from up top. Both of them froze in place.
Something's not right. What in the hell is this heavy feeling? Lucian frowned as he looked through the trees, searching for any sign of the source. But the foliage was too dense beyond the path itself. His hand slid down to the holster he concealed at the small of his back. Evelyn tensed next to him as she noticed his movement. Her head snapped up and she checked their rear as he scanned in front of them.
More booms filled the silence. This time the deep rumble made the very ground shake under their feet. Within a few minutes of the first loud bang and echoes, a horrifying howl filled the midafternoon.
The sound was the worst thing either of them had ever heard. Lucian paled as the howl sliced through the quiet of the forest. His blood chilled as his heartrate accelerated. Sweat slid down the back of his neck as he took a half step backwards in response. I want to run, to flea this area as fast as I can. But why? What is going on in the forest today?
Evelyn gritted her teeth as every cell in her body told her, screamed at her to run as fast as she could in the opposite direction. To get as far away from the source of that howl as quickly as she could. She reached out a trembling hand to squeeze Lucian's. He glanced at her and offered a faint hint of a smile. He squeezed her hand and straightened his back as he looked around.
Before either of them could speak, a cacophony of screams, shouts and explosions sounded off in the distance. Whatever was going on, people were getting hurt.
"Stay behind me and move exactly as I do," Lucian said quietly to Evelyn who nodded in grim determination. For once she didn't argue as Lucian took the lead. He stepped carefully forward, ears focused, listening to any sound that he could. Trying to gauge what type of situation was up ahead of them.
Lucian didn't know what was going on, but he could tell it wasn't going well for someone. Together, they left the trail and crept through the woods The sound grew louder and clearer with every step they took. Suddenly the earth shook violently, the trees swayed in response. Leaves and branches snapped off from the trees as a giant bulge grew out from the ground. It widened as it pushed through the moss covered ground until a large, rounded tunnel appeared in front of them.
Evelyn gasped as she felt the ground settle beneath her feet. She reached out a trembling hand as her heart raced in her chest. She gripped onto her husband's arm for support. This was getting way out of hand.
Lucian cursed as he shoved her down to the ground, the suddenness caused Evelyn to cry out as a branch pressed deep into her thigh causing pain. "Shh, not a word!" Lucian's whispered warning held the authority of a king as he pressed them down into the shrubs, hiding from the tunnel.
Moments later, men in white coats came running in from the sides of the forest towards the entrance of the tunnel. They shouted and let out war cries as they raised their automatic weapons and began firing into the tunnel while they advanced. The men farther back from the front line launched volleys of magical strikes deep into the tunnel, causing more rumbling explosions that caused parts of the tunnel to shake and collapse.
Screams and gunshots could be heard as another battle inside the tunnel had started. This isn't right. This isn't a battle it's a god damn slaughter! Cries of pain and anguish reached her ears and from what Evelyn could make out, there were women and children inside that tunnel. Evelyn covered her mouth with her hand as she imagined women and children being gunned down. I will not just stand by and watch this horror!
Her mana flared out suddenly around them. The bright green swirls of color sending a whirlwind of air through the shrubs as her emotions and anger raged inside her beyond her control. She started moving forward with instinct. She shrugged off Lucian's hold on her as she lifted herself to her knees. She had to help however she could. The children had to be saved, if there were any survivors.
Lucian quickly grabbed his wife by the arm. Her explosion of mana sent a cold chill through him. This isn't good, at this point they will find us and we don't have the strength to fight against those numbers! She whirled around to face him as anger filled her features at being stopped. The wind whirled around them, pulling at his hair and clothes
Her eyes glowed a vibrant green as her mana wrapped them up in the beautiful, but dangerous colors. He pulled her close to his body. He could feel the raging heartbeat, the tightness of her muscles, like a coil about to be released. She was hurting, angry, and desperate to help. That was just the person she was. He leaned down and whispered barely audible in her ear. "Stop and think for a moment! I only have my side arm with me. We are outnumbered without a way to call for backup or reinforcements. We would be dead before we even reached the tunnel entrance. This is a trained group!"
He pressed her down into the ground, knocking her knees out from under her. Her body was shaking as tears flowed freely down her face. She didn't respond as she looked at the tunnel then back to him, the screams of the dying still echoed through her ears. She shook her head and tried once more to push against her husband and reach the battle.
"We can't. All we can do is hide and try to help any survivors when this is over." His voice was filled with sorrow and regret as he wrapped himself around her. She had to calm down or it would be the end of both of them. He wanted to do something. He yearned to do anything to help the anguished screams he could hear. But they couldn't help anyone if they were killed in the crossfire.
He kept his grip tight around the brunette in his arms as she stopped struggling against him. Her mana suddenly died off and the wind disappeared around them. He kept them low and crouched in the bushes while the screams eventually died down. Pain filled Lucian's heart as he understood what that must have meant. It's over. As men in the white coats walked out laughing from the tunnel, his worst suspicions were confirmed. Whatever group these men were after, had most likely all been slaughtered in that tunnel.
He pressed both their bodies down into the ground to avoid detection as the groups of men in white coats walked back and forth for a long time. They brought bodies out of the tunnel to pile them up on one side of the forest. Eventually, a man with short blonde hair in spikes walked out from the tunnel. He had a bandage covering the left side of his face as he spoke to a couple other of the men. "Leave the bodies of the animals. Pull our wounded and dead out of here. Leave no trace we were ever here." His gruff voice issued the commands to the men nearby.
Evelyn let out a quiet choked sob as she heard those words. Lucian kept her pinned down in the ground, hiding behind the bushes as the men on the trail worked and extracted from the area.
A loud rumbling could be heard shortly after the command was given. Lucian felt it in his bones as it grew louder and closer, the leaves blew in the wind around them. Then above the clouds a loud hovercraft was spotted, the four rotator engines slowing their spin as the craft landed in the clearing. The men walked up the ramps, carrying the wounded and the dead on stretchers with them. Lucian lost count of how many men he saw departing. When the last aircraft departed, Lucian waited another half hour before he lifted his body off Evelyn and kept his ears perked ahead for any sound of movement or voices.
Confident that they all appeared to have left, Lucian grabbed Evelyn's hand and slowly crept through the brush and stepped out onto the trail. As they neared the tunnel entrance, Evelyn let out a strangled cry as she saw the bodies littering the ground. Women and children filled the tunnel. Some of them were in a were-wolf form when they died. Hot, wet tears filled her eyes as she looked in horror and pain.
Lucian cursed out loud as he looked down at the tunnel. The bruised and burned corpses of women and children filled the tunnel path. A grisly sight that caused Lucian to brace himself against the wall with a trembling hand, bend over and empty the contents from his stomach. The sight of the bodies and smell of burnt and rotting flesh was too much for him to bear.
He had let go of Evelyn's hand by now. Focused on the bodies in front of him, he didn't notice when she rushed from his side and started checking anybody she could find for a pulse. She cried and sobbed with finality with each body that was still, quiet and unresponsive. She was desperate, even beyond reason to try and find a single person she could save in this massacre. Foot by foot they made their way through the tunnel, checking the bodies around them, and not finding a single pulse among them.
Lucian shook his head with a sigh as they cleared another group of bodies, a mix of humans and were-wolf. "It looks like those men in white coats didn't leave a single survivor. They appeared to be thorough in their killing," Lucian said softly. His voice was strange and hoarse to his own ears. The sound of it made Evelyn jump in surprise.
Her face was riddled with tears that wouldn't stop flowing. She didn't know these people. The amount and scale of death and devastation tore at her heart in the worst sort of way. "There must be one, single person alive in this. Someone must have survived," she whispered in fear as she shook her head in grim determination. She would not give up. Not until she has checked on every single body that she came across. Someone had to be alive, she just knew it.
Lucian let out a vicious curse as he stumbled upon what appeared to be a younger woman with a young, possibly newborn child wrapped in a soft cloth sling around her body. The baby was tucked against her chest. Both bodies appeared to have been burned by a magical strike. He felt his stomach heave, threatening to unload for the second time. The poor mother and child. No one deserved a death that way. His stomach rose again and this time he couldn't hold back as he hurled. Bile and acid burned his throat as he painted the side of the cavern walls.
While Lucian was dealing with emptying his stomach, Evelyn walked over, the smell of burnt flesh and cloth singing her nose from the pungent odor. There was a were-wolf nearby that had a gunshot wound right between her eyes. A trail of blood flowed from the hole in her head to the ground, staining her skin, a blank empty expression on her face.
Evelyn shook her head at such a tragic loss of life in this tunnel. She hadn't heard of were-wolves often. Were-wolves are supposed to be extinct, how are there this many in one place? Her mind spun in circles as she tried to make sense of what exactly was going on. Her foot kicked against something on the ground and a soft child's voice could be heard crying, almost as if muffled by something.
"Lucian, over here!" Evelyn's shocked voice called out to her husband as she knelt and discovered a small lid with holes in the top for air flow. Lucian knelt beside her and helped her to break the lid off and reveal a small child with beautiful black curly hair and piercing blue eyes that stared up at them. The baby didn't appear to have a mark on his body as he was hidden in the ground. The child looked up at them with nothing but trust in his eyes as he cooed in his hiding spot.
"A survivor," Lucian said in wonder and awe. He couldn't believe that out of all this death and carnage, a lone baby survived. He reached down and gently lifted the tiny child out of the hole. The baby looked on at Lucian's soft face as the man held him gently in his arms. "He's all alone," he said quietly as he wrapped his arms tenderly around the little baby boy.
Evelyn stepped closer to her husband. "We can't just leave him somewhere." Her voice quivered as she looked at the adorable baby, lost in his beautiful blue eyes. She bit her bottom lip in indecision as she looked at her husband. "We will take him. We will raise him as our own," she said suddenly. A bright smile spread across her face at the thought of calling this baby hers. He may have lost his blood kin today. But he would not be alone in this cruel unforgiving world.
Lucian thought it over for a moment. What choice did they really have? She was right, they couldn't just leave him here or drop the baby off at a random orphanage or medical facility. They would ask too many questions that they didn't have the answers for. He settled on his decision and nodded. "Let's call him… Gavin," he said thoughtfully as he turned to look at Evelyn.
Evelyn smiled in appreciation at her husband. "Yes, I love the name," she said as she gently took the baby from him into her own arms. "Welcome to the family, little Gavin Johnson."