I had not known how long we had driven, once I was lead into the Therian's white van, and took a spot in the seatless rear end of the van, as the Therian woman and Mike took the driver's seat and passenger seat, but I must had drifted into a sleep deprived doze, because within what felt like minutes of driving, I was shaken abruptly awake.
My eyes snap heavily open.
The woman kneels before me, her hands on my shoulders, her blue eyes cast in shadow.
"Wake up, we're here."
I glare around the van, managing clumsily to my feet.
"Where are we?"
"Headquarters."
Mike replies, as he opens the passenger door and steps out.
The woman leads me out of the van, and around me stands a large parking bay, cement walls and a ceiling standing broadly over the expanse of the bay, where vehicles were emerging from the large entrance that was under heavy surveillance, sunlight brightly spilling from it, revealing shockingly green spruce trees and a wide dirt road that lay beyond.
A group of armed Therian men and women stand in front of the van, their bodies dressed in that familiar skin tight black and silver suit that Jason had been wearing, their eyes set steadily on me.
The woman immediately replies at the sight of my foreboding expression.
"They're simply here to escort you, in case you are having any consideration of making a run for it."
She couldn't have known that I had no intent of doing so.
I am lead, Mike and the woman in front of me, the group of Therian's behind me, to a large set of doors on one side of the parking bay. Once ushered inside, I was lead steadily down a wide hallway of steel walls and doors.
I was overwhelmed by the raw scent of Therian surrounding me. It quickened my heartbeat, and I could feel a sharp sense of apprehension set in beneath my skin.
We had been walking for what felt like hours before we finally found a set of two doors fitted with thick glass, revealing the inside.
We enter what appeared to be a conference room and office.
A large wooden desk stood in the corner of the room, papers heaped messily over its tabletop, and in the center of the room, a large round table fitted with several chairs.
A tall man stood at the table, a uniform covering neatly over his broad shoulders. His rather grizzled features were fitted with a beard of dark brown, his dark brown eyes set against his features sullenly which added significantly to the recognition of his aging.
Those brown eyes met with mine, as I stood amidst my escorts.
I could smell him from where I stood.
He's Jason's father.
Jason had been the splitting image of the man that stood before me, glaring questioningly at me.
He finally spoke up.
"So this is the man?"
The woman nods, standing aside so that he can get a better look at me.
"He claims to have been Turned, commander, by your son before he was killed."
The commander replies, his voice as grizzled as his features.
"His form is similar to that of my son and I. He smells like him too."
Mike, standing erect, his hands respectfully before him, speaks.
"Could be simply coincidental."
The commander shook his head, pushing Mike to the side as he strides towards me, pulling a device from his pants.
The device was slim, made of a thick aluminum, fitted with screen, a capsule and a needle jutting from the end of it.
Without hesitating to warn me, he plunges the needle into one of my shackled forearms. I flinch, stepping slightly backwards as the needle suctions a small portion of my blood, filling the capsule with a small pool of my dark red.
The commander pulls the needle from my arm, clearly avoiding my eyes.
Silence drapes the room thickly, the Therians standing stiffly guard around me, Mike and the woman watching the commander eagerly as he operates the machine with light occasional finger presses on the touch screen.
As an indication blinks to life on the screen, showing the result of the blood test, I could nearly feel the anticipation wafting from the bodies around me.
Finally, the commander's voice fills the room.
"The blood test confirms the man's story. He has my son's blood."
This time a different silence follows his words. A tense silence that brought about a sense of disbelief, sadness.
Finally, the man lifts his brown eyes to look at me.
I stand frozen, blood making fine lines that trailed across my forearm like thread.
"So, my son?"
He says slowly, his voice wavering.
I attempt to swallow the thick fixture of mucus that coats my throat.
"He is dead. He died of his bullet wounds, he managed to save me life, and-"
I glare around myself uncomfortably, unsure of the usage of the word.
"Turned me."
I finish.
The commander wearily closes his eyes, and in that expression I truly see his age, his vulnerability. I see now not a tall, broadly spoken man, but a father who has lost now both children.
The Night Blades took my sister, Alex. Please- you have to get her back-
When the commander opens his eyes, a different expression now structured his features.
His skin was slightly red with anger, his eyes noticeably glassy with moisture.
"Why the hell did he Turn you, boy?"
I am taken aback, and struggle to find the words, but he continues:
"Why would his dying act be to Turn a pathetic human into a Therian. Can you tell me that?"
That tense silence in the room returns.
I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. I moisten my dry lips, unable to do anything other than stare at the man before me.
But in the back of my head, back beneath the street lights of the horrifying night, I hear Jason's words:
My kind need people like you, Alex.
The commander scoffs at my silence.
He turns his attention to the woman.
"Colonel Margery, escort this man to the barracks. He will join our new recruits in training. We might as well put fresh meat nonetheless of its impurity to good use."
Impurity?
Margery nods sharply and quickly, before I could react, I am once again lead away into the never-ending steel hallways, the commander gives me one last glance before turning his gaze away from me, almost in revolt.
As I am lead down the hallways, Colonel Margery speaks to me, in an almost sarcastic tone.
"Congratulations new-blood, welcome to the Therian army."
. . .
"Recruits! Get your asses up, morning training is about to begin!"
A loud and jarring voice thrusts me violently from my sleep, and I jerk to a sitting position.
I flinch as the overhead lights of the sleeping barracks slam into bright illumination above me on the top bunk of the bunk bed that I slept on.
Around me rows of bunk beds align a large hall, the blankets and the forms of bodies beneath them being thrown off and coming to life, as the men around me prepare for the morning before them.
I release a yawn that was threatening my throat, and slip from the top bunk, landing softly on the cold cement floor.
