Auroracrest Peaks
The howls were faint and distant. Immediately, Nica extinguished the fire with soil, and pitch black fell before them. Only their teeth and eyeballs gleamed against the faint moonlight. Their camo suits melt perfectly with the environment. The cold wind whistled again as if mocking them to their nearing deaths. A rustle of paws against dried leaves and twigs huddled closer to their location.
Luke used a night vision scope to assess the area. Unfortunately, a pack of wolves sniffed on the ground, rabid, and salivating. Their bodies were larger than normal, more fearless, and hungry. They sensed food nearby. It must be the trek group that triggered the pack.
Softly, Luke whispered. "Ghost Howlers, Virtex Product."
"We are doomed," Calyx said, familiar with the name Virtex.
Hawthorne Hill was a place of central experimentation for the Bugmen, the location of the Virtex Facility. Probably, their primal instincts compelled the aliens to discover further the genomic design of Earthlings. They captured animals for discovery and experimentation's sake. They enhanced the creatures into monsters inside the Virtex Science Research Facility. Furthermore, testing serums that would enhance human bodies, too. Or worse, discovering a vaccine that could withstand death by biological weapons.
Virtex Science Research Facility had former moral issues on secret animal experimentations which authorities had protested, run by a psychotic Biologist, Doctor Ekmer. Before the invasion, Doctor Ekmer faced a lot of controversies and investigations, the Government issued temporary operational suspensions of his facility. Eventually, the facility shut down and never resurfaced ever since. Seemingly, the Bugmen had infected Doctor Ekmer and operated the facility once again, significantly contributing to the cause of the aliens.
These wolves were called by scientists as Ghost Howlers because of their ability to change fur color, melting themselves with the environment, chameleon-like. The thick creeping mist would conceal any presence of animals nearby, and the wolves' chameleon ability presented an equal threat to the environment, only their colossal silhouettes identified their movements.
Luke and the group relied on their night vision scopes, and thermal imaging to locate the infected beasts.
Command had imprisoned such a rabid Monkey in the training camps, Virtex-manufactured, genetically enhanced, and pathogen-shielded. A group of military scientists studied the captured monkey, called Simian X, by the available methods of microbiology, testing flesh and contaminated blood by a mutated pathogen. They were baffled by the results as if Simian X had strengthened their DNA makeup to battle aging and certain diseases, especially bacterial and viral infections, even parasites. Until such time, Virologists and Geneticists discovered that the Neurax worms avoided enhanced bodily immunity and directly infected themselves to the bloodstream, through the nervous system, eventually invading the brain function in seconds.
Luckily, Luke brought a Neurotoxin for instant paralysis.
"How many of them?" Nica asked.
"About four of them," Luke responded with a night vision scope buried in his eye.
"We kill them with our V9," Nica suggested.
"No, once you fire that weapon, they will attack full force. They don't know our location; they are still finding us through smell."
"So, what are we going to do, genius?"
"Neuroparalysis. Airborne style."
"What? We will be infected." Calyx said.
"I will create distance. Neurax Worm's toxins only can infect for a twenty-meter radius. I will be your bait. Create distance from you, then will detonate a vial into the air and infect the Ghost Howlers."
"What about you?" Nica said.
"I will feel the effects of paralysis, but because of my blood, my system will flush it out for minutes. This is the only way."
"Don't die out there, or I will kill you!" Nica scorned.
After planning, his heart hammered against his chest. Cold sweat ran down his back inside his suit. He separated from the group and sneaked a direction farther from the wolves and his comrades. His night vision showed green images of the huddled wolves sniffing to the ground closing their distance.
'I have to create a diversion,' Luke thought.
Luke climbed on an upright tree with spike tools he installed on his hand, a feature connected to the suit. As he climbed, he mustered a force overcoming the pain searing on his shoulders and lower extremities that still lingered from his training. He remembered his survival training back at Command camps.
Hastily, he twisted a glow stick the moment he reached a favorable height where he perched comfortably. He dropped the glow stick to the ground and shouted at the wolves. "Hey!"
The wolves diverted their attention from the faint smell to the echoing call. They were not sniffing anymore, hurriedly they skittled fast gaining wide steps, mist moving with them as if creating a vacuum behind their strides.
The camouflaged wolves ardently attacked the green glow, so pronounced against the pitch-black environment. From above, he could not comprehend the actual location of bodies as they tug-of-war the glow stick with their mouths. Four of them, indiscernible bodies clouded the area, Luke opened the syringe embedded in the arrow, liquid still intact inside. His crossbow fired the arrow and into the chaos below. Theoretically, Neurotoxin contaminated the air like a small mist. After a few seconds, the ruckus had subsided gradually, invisible bodies falling to the ground, the faint glow survived and was motionless encircled by unconscious shadows.
'It worked,' Luke thought.
He called the group as silence was upon them. Even though the wolves were paralyzed, their camouflage ability remained. With Kristo's handgun, he did the honor of shooting their heads. The size of the wolves grew almost achieving full-grown cattle, four collection tubes each. What's advantageous with genetically engineered creatures would provide them with the wildest amount of mutation gene points.
Fourteen collection tubes down, nineteen to go.
They slept through the night with alternating times. One should be awake to guard them while others sleep. As morning came, the sunlight pierced through the towering trees, yet the cold had persevered. Luke admired the fresh air and comforting breeze that caressed his face. He liked hunting, he thought.
They huddled for a morning snack around a distinguished fireplace, smoke weakly wafting through the air. The mist had disappeared, and the greenish, brownish, white frosted forest gave them a sense of peace. Birds chirped above them.
"Where to next?" Calyx asked, slurping hot tea.
Nica collected some fresh wood for burning and replaced the fire-eaten firewood.
"Further up, this time. We look for bears." Luke said.