Hunter Hunted Ch. 02

Tom brushed past Lewis, who had stood leaning against the wall of Tigerlilly's room waiting for him, allowing himself to be led away by Grant, only once looking over his shoulder at the door being locked by Lewis.

"It will be ok, Lieutenant," Grant said. "You need your rest too."

Tom followed the medics into the med bay, providing the details Commander Grant needed about the ambush as he was tended to. The medics had cleaned his wounds and were patching him up as best they could, wrapping bandages around the repaired muscles and skin to hold it in place; he had enough stitching in him to knit a sweater by the time they were finished.

"Our clients lied to us about the enemy's numbers," Grant was saying. "After your team went missing they sent out a raiding party, damaged a lot of our equipment and claimed many lives. We tracked them and ended up lost in the jungle; even after we found their main camp they had already cleared out, probably falling back to another nearby position to strike from." The commander shook his head. "We aren't being paid to lose."

"We aren't being paid to die either, sir. We brought enough for a small scale skirmish, not guerrilla warfare, and not against such a numerous force."

"I've been in contact with our clients since the raid: they don't appreciate being left empty-handed, and since we spent their deposit on the equipment we needed, we're staying here." Grant shook his head. "The things we have to do sometimes...you'll need to stay here tonight, in isolation - just a precaution, I'm sure you understand."

Tom nodded as the medics fixed a pad to his cheek over the three claw marks there, starting to feel drowsy from the antibiotics he had been given. They left him to it and he began to drift as soon as his head touched the pillow.

"What of the girl?" he asked, anxious about Tigerlilly's fate.

Grant paused, looking back at the young soldier. "Don't worry about it, everything will work out for the best."

-

Tom awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of a gentle tap. Sitting up carefully, he peered around the small dark room, wondering what was causing it. Hearing the noise again, he glanced up at the single window in his room and spotted Tigerlilly, her hand pressed mournfully to the glass, a sad look in her eyes.

Tom got up and worked the window back and forth, eventually lifting it up and allowing Tigerlilly to crawl through the gap. The girl cuddled into his arms, mewing lightly and nuzzling his chest. He didn't know how she managed to get out, or why she was outside the facility, but Tom thought she seemed scared, in a way that he had never seen before.

"Shhh...it's ok, Tigerlilly, I'm here," he whispered to her, trying to calm the poor thing down. Tigerlilly's eyes were shut tight, her hand gripping his robe tightly. Tom looked her over and in horror he could just make out a small bloodstain on the fur on her hip, and another on her arm.

"What has happened to you?"

With a loud crash the door to the room burst off its hinges, blinding light filling the doorway. Men bearing long batons with electro stunners on the tips charged in and struck Tigerlilly, making the girl cry out in pain and fall to the floor, curling up in a ball to protect herself. Tom was thrown from the bed as more men grabbed him by the arms, jabbing him in the side to bring him to his knees. The pain was unbearable. Tom roared with anger and struggled, but was unable to resist as volts of electricity flashed through his body. Eventually Tom was pinned down face first as the light to the room came on.

Tom heard boots on the white floor enter the room and stop next to him. He looked up and recognised Captain Lewis, wearing heavy body armour and holding a stunner. The man seemed almost too eager to be there in his opinion. Lewis glanced to the men who were restraining Tom and smirked.

"Still resisting is he? Looks like he could lash out at any moment," he said to the guards, who were having no trouble at all holding Tom in place. "Better hit him again," he laughed, and jammed his stun-bat into Tom's back.

-

Tom was dragged bodily through the compound, half-concious, to a low building with a biohazard marking on it. Like the medical building it was well built with solid walls despite being a temporary structure, but it had no windows. He was led inside by the guards and brought to a halt before a heavily barred door. Captain Lewis knelt down in front of him.

"So, there's more to you than meets the eye, Murdoch," he growled, fiddling with the stun-bat. "Shame you didn't bring that rat fuck Hinds back with you...doesn't feel right doin' this without the full set." He pressed the business end of the bat underneath Tom's chin, lifting his head up.

"If they're alive, and you know where they are...ohhh, you'd better believe I'll find them," Lewis said, as though he thought he was being intimidating. Tom just glared, filled with anger, and for a moment a hint of uncertainty flashed across the captain's face. Behind him the heavy bolt slid across and the door opened. Lewis stood up and backed away as Tom squinted against the light coming from the doorway.

"Commander Grant?"

"Lieutenant, I must say this isn't how I wanted it to be." Grant stepped into the room, blocking the glare behind him. "Your friend, however, has proved to be something quite extraordinary, and her actions tonight have forced my hand." Growling noises were coming from the doorway as Grant spoke, getting Tom's attention. Grant glanced over his shoulder.

"Busy happenings in there, my friend. Would you like to see?" He gestured to the guards who lifted Tom up and dragged him through the door behind Grant. The room they entered was like a prison, bars and cages on all sides.

"I wasn't lying when I said we were in trouble here," Grant said, walking ahead of Tom. "We have quite a lot invested in this endeavour, and little to show for it. However," he went on, tapping the bars of a small cell. "There is something of great value here after all, and I am taking whatever action necessary to pull my men out of the dirt and give them a future." Tom looked into the cell and saw a girl, as familiar as Tigerlilly yet just as unique. She sported a jet black coat with grey hair around her hands, her ears and her breasts, some of it stained with red.

"As you can see, our attempts at domesticating these...girls...has been less than successful," said Grant, turning to the second cell containing another girl. He pointed to her.

"This one tore Kudrick to shreds when he attempted to bed her." The small, brown haired girl hissed at Grant, who didn't seem phased by her at all. "Sergeant Molov was able to finish with the other girl, but only while she was heavily restrained, and it did nothing to help her controllability." Tom looked back as the poor creature with black and grey hair threw itself against the bars in an attempt to get to Grant. They raped her.

"The only one we know of that has shown any kind of tame behaviour - or any behaviour different from this kind of aggression - is yours." Grant continued, passing through another lockable door into an empty room of cells. "She is as dangerous as the others, but it's not the same...something about her interaction with you makes her unique." He abruptly stopped, turning to face Tom in front of the open door of a prison cell as the two guards holding Tom up dropped him to his knees.

"Son, I need to know what makes her different. Why she is obedient to you...and why she is five times more dangerous to other men than the wild ones are." Tom read into Grant's words and glared at him.

"I swear if you touched her, if any of you've touched her..."

"I don't want it to be like this, Murdoch. You're my best soldier, but right now I need to know how you tamed that girl." Grant grabbed Tom's throat, glaring down at him. "How did you do it? How do you control her??"

"Y-you can't, just, control them! It...it doesn't work like that! They don't work like that!"

"Fine, have it your way." With a heave Grant lifted Tom and threw him into the cell, his back slamming into the wall. Tom coughed and groaned as the door swung shut, clanging into place. Commander Grant stepped up to the bars, and for the first time Tom noticed private Parker standing just behind the guards, looking scared and uncomfortable.

"Your little friend will be put with the others we have caught, and when we start the next stage of our experiments she will be the first in line. I WILL pull my men out of this mess ahead in profits, even if it means doing things I would rather not. You should have cooperated, Lieutenant. Not every commander would do anything it takes to save his men." He stepped back, the anger draining from his face. "Enjoy your last night alive, Murdoch. Tomorrow morning, you face the firing squad." He shook his head, looking regretful. "I am sorry to have to do it."

-

Tom sat alone in his cell, feeling helpless and miserable. He didn't even know where Tigerlilly was now, and he knew that Grant wasn't bluffing; he would take whatever action necessary to control the girls, even if he never succeeded. Tom had tried the bars on his cell, but there was no way through them, and no weapons nearby. He had no escape plan.

The sound of a door unlocking at the end of the hall roused Tom from his stupor. He got up and stood by the door to his cage, prepared to fight his way out. The inner door opened and private Parker stepped through.

"Relax, Murdoch, I'm not here to fight. I swear I didn't know about any of...this, when we took you and your girl in." Parker stepped up to the bars and Tom could see the sincerity in his eyes, along with a loss of loyalty.

"Grant didn't tell you a damn thing, did he?"

"I had no idea they even existed, never mind what he was planning for them."

"I didn't think he had it in him. Doesn't matter now, all I care about is saving these girls. They're innocent, and don't deserve this. Can you help me?"

"Of course! These are amazing creatures," Parker said, gripping the cell bars. "They are unlike anything I've ever seen, and I won't stand by while they are treated this way." Parker fiddled with the lock and opened the door, letting Tom step out.

"Several of our men mysteriously disappeared overnight, just after we chased the rebels following their raid on our base. My guess is Grant brought back the girls then, under cover of darkness, and I think the missing men might have been killed by these girls. From what I read about Grant's experiments, all but one fought off the men's advances, and she had to be tied back during it, which still didn't work because she was even worse afterwards. Grant said something about a choice being made...I don't know, I'm no expert, but it sounds like their aggressiveness has something to do with their...virginity." Parker looked at Tom, almost a little embarrassed to be talking about it. Tom tilted his head in acknowledgement.

"They choose their mate very carefully, making sure he is strong enough to protect her and tough enough to survive the, er, process," Tom said thoughtfully. "That kind of loyalty can't be earned by rape, not if she can't test his limits. It doesn't matter what Grant does, he will never get these girls under control." Parker nodded, standing up quickly.

"We need to get them out of here, and you as well," he said. "Grant has your girl locked away somewhere separate, I think he means to take her for himself once he's figured out how to master them." The thought made Tom sick. He knew Tigerlilly would never touch Grant, but even the idea of him finding a way...

"How did you figure all this out, Parker? There's no way Grant's team has this much intel if they can't even bed the girls."

"I had help...from some friends of yours. It seems you're not alone, Murdoch." Parker led Tom out into the other room of cells, occupied by the two girls in the cages and four others: two uncaged girls, one of them maroon coloured with a black stripe down her back, the other brown with white stripes on her sides pointing to her belly, and two men in a mix of uniform and armour.

"Oxley? Hinds??" Tom stammered as Liam Oxley crushed him in a hug. Robert "Niner" Hinds smiled and grasped his comrade's hand as Ox let him go, the two girls at their heels emitting a low growl of caution. Ox leaned down and stroked the red and black girl's back, flattening her tall black ears against her head to calm her down. Tom noticed she had a clash of black and maroon coloured shoulder length hair, with taller ears and a thinner tail than either Tigerlilly or the other girl, who had long brunette hair the same colour as her body and short brown ears.

"Easy, Ruby," whispered Ox, looking up at Tom. "Good to see you in one piece, Lieutenant...well, mostly one piece," he added, looking at Tom's bandages. Tom noticed similar markings on some of Ox and Niner's clothing, however their armour was complete and tightly fixed to their uniforms. Ox looked down at their gear as Niner moved with his brown and white girl to check the door leading out of the hut.

"Already snuck into the armoury, and left a little surprise in there too," he said, grinning mischievously. Parker grinned as well, while Niner gave a snort of disbelief, waggling a small detonator at them.

"I did the wiring, and the planting, and the priming," he said, before tucking the detonator into a small chest pocket behind his armour plating to keep it safe. Ox shrugged and handed some of Tom's personal gear over, motioning to the rifle slung across his back.

"Well, I also had to pick up Little One, of course." Little One was Oxley's custom-built designated marksman rifle, a bullpup design with a compact submachine gun mounted underneath the barrel for extra firepower at close range. It was a bit of a heavy weapon, with a powerful large calibre round coming out of the end which could cause more damage than Grant usually asked for. Tom should have figured Ox wouldn't leave it to be destroyed in the blast.

"So what's the plan then?" he asked, strapping his P99 pistol to his leg and accepting some hard plates from Niner. "We getting the girls all together and busting out of here on our own?"

"Not that simple, we have to be very careful," Ox cautioned. "There's only seven of them, but they sometimes get aggressive and frisky towards tamed girls and their tamers respectively. We haven't figured out how the alpha pack thing works with them yet." He gently patted Ruby's head, letting her know everything was ok. "Plus they may see us as friendly, but we're probably going to need more help from guys like Parker, and if we couldn't convince these girls to play nice when we thought they were trying to eat us I don't know if we can convince them not to rip our buddies to shreds. Parker had an idea though," he said, turning to the private. Parker gulped, a little apprehensive.

"Lieutenant Shrike, Sergeant Cussler and a many others aren't interested in staying here if Grant insists on treating these girls the way he is. It's not just his chosen brutes anymore; the secret's out, and about half of those who didn't know about them until you showed up are disgusted at the idea of slavery. So we want to come with you, if that's alright," he added, looking from Ox to Tom for approval. "Since we'll have more than one pilot in our group, we could fly the big cargo chopper out of here with plenty of room for all of us. We could even separate any girls who come with us if need be, so there is less chance of infighting." The plan made sense. The enormous cargo helicopter sitting in the compound was called the Thunderbird: it was a special build, one of a kind, and needed a crew of at least three or four men to safely manage it on long journeys. The problem was that it was one of Grant's most prized possessions. He wouldn't let it go easily if they were caught out.

"I like it, but I have to rescue Tigerlilly," Tom said, strapping his forearm guard into place and harnessing a knife on his shoulder webbing. "I can't leave without her."

"I figured you wouldn't," Parker nodded. "She's in a solitary holding cell, set up in a tomb behind the main storage building that leads into the local ruins." The jungle hadn't been completely empty when they arrived, and Grant had placed one of the storage sheds in the mouth of a large stone temple, with the intention of using its many small rooms going off of a central passageway that had no other exit. "This facility is too small for them all to fit, so Grant only used it for his...experiments," he said, as though the word left a foul taste in his mouth. "The other girls are stored in small cages just inside the smaller adjacent storage building. There's a key for that door, where we'll go in, but Grant has extra security on Tigerlilly. You'll find it difficult to access the ruins."

"Thank you," he said to Parker. Tom turned to the others. "I can't ask you guys to wait for me, especially since if I get caught the whole plan will go out the window. Grant will know I can't have gotten this far on my own, or known where he was hiding Tigerlilly," he said, looking at Parker. Niner turned and shook his head.

"We came back for you as much as the girls," he said. "Besides, we know what she means to you. I'd do the same for Evie." He reached down and smoothed out the fur on the brown girl's back, listening to her purr happily.

"We have to move," said Parker, checking his watch. "We don't have long before the guards will figure out someone has gotten into the base from the outside." Niner motioned to the others and they all headed out the door and into the main room, where Parker picked up an assault rifle and handed one to Tom.

"We'll rally the troops," said Ox, cocking the large bolt handle and chambering a round in Little One. "You go get the girl, Bond."

-

The compound was quiet, most of the soldiers sleeping in the barracks and only a few guards on perimeter duty. Tom kept his rifle close, hoping he wouldn't have to use it until he was on his way out, given the amount of noise the round would make in the peaceful jungle night.

When he got to the temple entrance he crept slowly over to one of the storage shed doorways, noticing it was locked but unguarded. Seeing a side entrance, he moved around to the left and tried the other door. Also locked, just as Parker said he would be. With little option Tom made his way down the side of the building to where it backed onto the ruins, hoping to find a weak point in the structure. Luckily the engineers were only able to cover part of the temple with the shed and there was a jagged stretch of stone that didn't line up with the straight temporary walls at the bottom, so Tom dug into the dirt for a few minutes until he had made a big enough hole to crawl through.

"I didn't sign up for an archaeological dig," he muttered to himself as he shimmied underneath the stone wall of the temple. He came out on the inside of the ruins, with the back of the storage building to his right and the passage way to his left, with a single electric light bolted to the wall for illumination. The passage was just wide enough to drive a car down, with several small square shaped rooms along each wall. Tom quickly made his way down into the dark, stepping around several poorly placed boxes of gear that must have been moved out of the other shed to make room for the girls. He moved quietly and carefully, afraid of turning on his flashlight and attracting attention.

Eventually he found himself at the back of the passage, so dark that he could barely see. He heard a faint sniffing noise and froze, finger on the trigger of his rifle. When he heard a faint mewling sound he immediately switched on his light and turned the corner into one of the rooms, finding Tigerlilly in a small animal cage with a barred door. The girl looked exhausted, but thrilled to see him as he rushed over to her cage.