The room, along with half the house, had been destroyed. Burnt rubble lay everywhere. The dark night sky with its two moons shone brightly. Dr. Eli had killed many of his allies with that detonation. There were burnt, shredded limbs, stubs of incinerated flesh, everywhere. The smell choked the lungs.
"Ahhh, how nostalgic…I love the smell of burnt, raw flesh at sunset." Xin might as well have been talking with cotton balls in his mouth; all Viktor heard was mumbled jargon. Viktor slapped his palm against his ear. Feeling a wet substance, he rubbed his fingers and looked at his hand. Blood. His blood. His wife…
Viktor swiveled around and accounted for everyone he had come with. Payne was bent on one knee as though genuflecting, Darksmith assessing the damage around him with calm surveillance; the three teen cubs were all present, if a little worse for wear. They were all disheveled, faces marred by anxiety, their bodies heaved vigorously with exhaustion.
Viktor shook his head, blinking profusely. The ringing finally stopped.
" 'Bout time we retrieved your lover," Xin mocked, looking out across the bluff. Viktor walked over to him. He sighed with relief, his eyes welling up with tears as he watched Audrianna staggering towards the bushes. She walked into the canopy of a group leafy palms some three miles below, out of sight.
Viktor gritted his teeth against the swell of emotions that burned within him. He sucked in a deep breath and took a step off the bluff that supported the unique building structure of the small brick house, sliding down the muddied path to the foliage beneath.
Xin drew the attention of the teen wolves with a wave of his hand and a nod forward in the direction Viktor was headed, a silent command to follow. They all slid down the slope towards the direction Audrianna had gone.
Payne looked at Viktor, Xin, and the werewolves heading down the path; Darksmith stood next to him. "Well," he patted Darksmith on the back, "there goes my ride. Let me know how it turns out." Payne whipped around on his feet and walked off in the opposite direction, into the darkness of the blown-away building, into the open jungle.
Darksmith looked in either direction; then, gritting his teeth, he stumbled down the path in the direction of the other party.
* * *
Audrianna stumbled through the jungle brush to a small clearing that led to a steep ravine. Her steps were slow. Her mind confused, she did not recognize her surroundings, she felt trapped in a trance from which escape was beyond her will. She sensed a presence behind her and turned. Her vision impaired, the seven combatants with automatic rifles, circling her as they entered the clearing, did not cause her to become alarmed.