After walking deeper into the settlement Emily, Jenny and Haley made their way to this Mara's housing. It was a sturdily built, two-room shelter reinforced with steel plates and rebar. Jenny told Emily, it was the work of Layla Nguyen, the engineer and mechanic.
Oddly enough, this place, where there should be a guard, stood alone with no one watching over it. Emily didn't have to ask Jenny the reason why, she could already scent it.
This Mara person, it wasn't just her strategies that brought her this far. She was strong enough to have made sure her people survived.
Jenny knocked on the door, and a slightly deep voice told them to come inside. And they did, inside, the leader's quarters was a room lined with maps, detailing everything the scout crew have found in their trips.
There were notes, and charts pinned up for quick access. The Mara person was seated behind a well furnished table, where there was an old radio, that's most likely used to signal a little ways beyond the city—to the outside world.
But everyone knew even Emily with her spotty memories that trying to go beyond the city, is nothing short of suicide. This city might somewhat belong to the humans, but beyond it it belongs to them.
But at the end of the day, Emily wasn't surprised people would try to make contact with the outside world. Because even with gardens to grow food, resources were limited, especially with other existing settlements that don't work well together.
Emily looked around and saw a door most likely leading to the leader's sleeping area.
Emily barely acknowledged the leader while she looked around everything in this with slight interest, but she did feel eyes on her, so she looked towards the leader, and there she was in her glory, scrutinizing her.
Emily wasn't perturbed by the hard look, she gave her. She too would be alert, seeing a weird girl, with weird eyes step inside her home of sorts. With an air of self-importance.
Mara Harper, a very tall woman even when seated, wearing a faded military uniform. And she looked unlike any woman Emily's ever seen, a woman with a bald head, ugly scars littered on her face. And cold stormy eyes, regarding Emily for a moment before glancing at Haley, only for a second.
Then her eyes moved towards Jenny, and she raised an eyebrow, "what's the meaning of this, where's Phil? Or at least Heidi?"
'So she knew Heidi was an F-ranker? Interesting...' Emily guessed, why else include in to begin with?
Jenny's eyes suddenly became moist, and she couldn't bear to look at Mara, "Phil, Heidi, Dana, Evelyn, Sasha," Haley stiffened beside Emily at the mention of Sasha. "Greg, Tommy and Beatrice, are all..." Jenny took a deep breath, "they are all dead."
Emily had noticed the only names Mara reacted to were those of Phil and Heidi. Especially that of Phil, which to Emily didn't make sense, considering Heidi was more powerful thus more useful than Phil or the others for that matter.
Emily regarded Mara, and thought more carefully about her position. It was must be difficult, maintaining this place, alone despite having others by her side. The top was very lonely, as Emily's father used to tell her.
'Then that must be it, they were lovers," Emily thought.
Mara turned to Emily, and asked, "if the others are dead, the reason Jenny and Haley made it back, must be because of you, am I right?"
Emily shrugged but didn't reply. And Mara took her non answer, as a yes. She turned back to Jenny, and said, "Does that mean, the mission was a failure? Not that I didn't warn you all. But being as stubborn as you all were, for something so uncertain. I guess it would be expected you'd all meet your end."
That was cold way of looking at the tragedy that has fallen Jenny's friends, even if it was the truth, well.. parts of it, "Actually, we got the moon-heart," Jenny told Mara.
Mara raised an eyebrow, and looked between Jenny and Haley, while giving Emily minute glaces, "where is it then?"
Jenny looked nervously towards Emily, and with a sigh Emily crouched down. And called forth her Lunar energy, connecting it with her shadow. And she could see inside, it was dark, as to be expected of a shadow.
Emily didn't take the time to look around, instead, she felt every space inside the shadow and found the moon-heart, and she dragged it out, as if her shadow was rejecting it and it jumped out and she caught.
The heart was bigger than a human head, blood red, still beating, and pulsing with thick silver veins, around it. There was nothing mystical about the moon-heart. But Emily did feel the abundant Lunar energy pulsing with each beat.
She had appraised the moon-heart, and it turns out even among the silver-eyed. The moon-heart was a rare occurrence, and the worst part for the silver-eyed who did possess a moon-heart was that. They couldn't actually utilise it's power, but humans and other werewolves could.
All they got was an ability to hide their scent, which doesn't make a difference because all silver-eyed werewolves possess such an ability. Even those without moon-heart, possessing only a silver-heart.
Mara didn't question why the heart was in Emily's possession, but she did pause to appraise Emily when she saw her shadow Symbiote, but she didn't make a comment on that, also.
"Is your stay in this settlement, permanent?" Mara asked Emily after she placed back the heart in her shadow.
"I've been rejected, and given only a weeks vacation, before I'm forced to vacate the settlement," Emily replied with a flat voice.
Mara's eyes flickered for a second, taking in that piece of information. She was surprised, but she hid it behind her commanding air. She nodded, eyes hard and searching.
"You can leave now, Jenny will show you the way to an apartment for one time visitors, I hope you don't cause any problems here."
Jenny moved towards the door first, as Emily let go of Haley's hand, so that she could follow behind.
In a minute only Emily and Mara were left, "is there anything else you'd like to say, uh.."
"Emily, and yes, I would to like to say something."
"Then say it."
"I would like for us to speak again, will that be alright with you?"
"That's all you wanted to say?" Mara asked, a hint of surprise in her voice.
Emily nodded, "Yes," she said.
"Then it's fine, tomorrow evening would be a good start, if it's fine with you?"
"It is, thanks," Emily replied, before she left the room. And found Jenny and Haley waiting for her outside. She smiled at them, then she followed their lead.
Inside the two-room shelter, Mara was thinking about the girl with weird eyes. And the only word she could come up with to describe her was, "strange" before she went back to work.
•••
Far away from the Survivor Settlement, in the graveyard grove, of an overgrown cement, at it's early stages of being slowly reclaimed by nature. Stood a werewolf in human disguise surrounded by broken tombstone.
Before him was a group of silver fur werewolves with the strongest standing infront of the disguised human.
"Where is the one that goes by the name Sasha," it asked in a deep voice, a growl laced in it's words.
"I have not been able to get in touch with her, my liege, but the plans must go on," the disguised human replied.
"Yes, in a week's time, all the humans will know of nothing but agony, thanks to my power the red moon has blessed me with, after my ascension," the ascension also known as an advancement in grade.
"Have you prepared what I asked for?" The pack leader asked the disguised human.
"Yes my liege, the human we caught has managed to create a new breed, with his science. The new breed has been termed by the red moon, as the weeping tribe. With this new breed, we would not even need to get our hands dirty, they will handle everything."
"Good, now let's celebrate, with a feast of humans we caught!"
Howls towards the red moon sounded for hours. As the werewolves celebrated the impending doom of the humans, finally, at last.
That night, when humans believed they had already endured the worst the apocalypse could bring, they had no idea of the horrors the werewolves had planned for them in the dark.