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Subject: {ASSM} Watchers of the Compound   part 7
Date: Mon,  5 Feb 2001 16:10:05 -0500
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Watchers of the Compound  part 7



Sean Kinkade tightened the last screw on the engine cover and leaned back.
He felt he had it this time; the snowmobile would definitely start.  It had
taken a couple of hours work but he had prevailed, he wouldn't have to leave
the machine up here.

As his head came up, he discovered he wasn't alone.  Two wolves, about
twelve feet apart, sat and watched him.  He could see their breath steaming
in the cold air, their mouths partly open.  Their eyes were focused on him,
and Sean wondered how long they had been there.

Oddly enough, he wasn't afraid, not very anyway.  There was a certain
anxiety about the situation he couldn't ignore, but the fact that he had
been oblivious to the approach of two wild wolves didn't seem to bother him.

He sat astride the snowmobile for a minute, just digesting the situation.
The wolves sat too, never taking their eyes off him.

Sean wondered where his friends were, and then he got an idea.

Carefully, he moved one hand until it rested on the handle bar.  The machine
had an electric start, the button for it next to the throttle.  He pushed
it, and the snowmobile thundered into action.  He expected it to frighten
the wolves off, startling them into running.  But they acted as if nothing
had happened and continued to stare at him.

Now Sean began to feel nervous.  There was something very odd about these
animals.  He looked around uneasily for his buddies, but they were nowhere
in sight.  Sean figured that at the moment the only one who could help him
was himself.

Cautiously he revved the engine up a few times, hoping the noise would scare
the wolves.  The sound of the engine echoed around the mountainside, and
Sean hoped it would attract the attention of Kale.

Instead, the wolves stood up.

This shocked Sean into action; he dropped the clutch and gunned the engine,
making the sled shoot forward.  The way he was aimed, he would pass right
between the two wolves, and as he took off he figured he was safe.  But a
moment later, he was hit from the side by a big furry body and propelled
from his seat.  He landed hard on the snowy ground and watched out of breath
as the unpiloted snowmobile ran straight into a tree.  The engine cut out,
and silence returned to the area.

Frightened, Sean rolled over and found a wolf just inches from his face, the
other just a few feet away.  Both wolves bared their teeth and growled
before the near one backed up.

Sean waited until his breath came back, then slowly got to his feet.  He
tried to move toward the crashed sled, but one of the wolves quickly got
between him and it.  Astonished, Sean tried to move toward the other
snowmobile and was again blocked.

Then one of the wolves moved closer, growling, and Sean took a step back.
The wolf continued to advance, so Sean kept moving.  As he walked backwards,
he was aware of the other wolf keeping pace ahead of them, and from time to
time that wolf would stand its ground, forcing Sean to turn and head in a
different direction.

As the snow started to fall and daylight began to fade, Sean Kinkade slowly
realized that he was deliberately being herded somewhere.

---***---

The humans in the clearing froze at the sight of the wolves.  All except two
thought their time was up, that this was the end.  Of the two that didn't,
Carlo was unconscious in the snow, and Lilly was...not sure what she was
feeling.

At first, there had been that rush of fear at the sight of so many dangerous
animals, but then her fear left her, and she was oddly not that concerned by
the wolves.  Her concern was more for Carlo, and she wanted to see how he
was.  She broke free from Andy, who was too stunned to keep hold of her, and
waded through the deep snow to her friend.

"Wait!" whispered Kale, afraid her movements would ignite the pack to
attack.

The pack did react to Lilly, but not in the way Kale expected.  They
followed Lilly's movement to the fallen boy but held their ground, swinging
their attention back to the town boys.

Lilly knelt in the snow, wishing her hands weren't bound behind her.  She
blinked her tear filled eyes in an attempt to see if Carlo was alive.  She
saw he was breathing, although he had a nasty gash on the side of his head,
and almost cried with relief.  She didn't notice one of the wolves sneak up
close behind her, sniff at her for a moment, before turning and looking at
the rest of the pack.

Kale, Andy, and Ed were then alarmed to see the pack move as one, advancing
on the three boys with teeth bared and snarls in the air.

The boys began to edge away toward the one part of the tree line where no
wolves stood, and they didn't realize that they were being herded like Sean
had been with his two wolves.

Lilly looked up at the sudden movement, and watched with little fear as the
town boys were encouraged to leave.  A part of her mind was questioning her
lack of fear, but she put it down to her concern for Carlo.

Once the boys reached the tree line, the pack split.  Six wolves kept
following the boys, while the other six turned their attention toward Lilly.

They advanced slowly, but this time not growling or showing any sign of
menace.  Lilly thought they all acted just like the wolf they had found
earlier, and she looked over to where it had gone over the side, wondering
if it was still alive.

The wolves gathered in a circle around the two humans, and Lilly tried to
keep track of them all, turning her head this way and that.  She was
therefore surprised when a human hand reached out to touch Carlo.

She spun, suddenly frightened, to see a man crouched in the snow beside her.
He was naked, and well muscled, and seemed impervious to the cold.  He also
had short black and gray hair in a familiar pattern, and a face that didn't
seem quite right.  He appeared to be in his fifties.

Lilly wondered where he had come from, and if the wolves were his.

"Don't," she said, as he touched Carlo.

The man looked at her for just a moment, before returning his attention to
the downed teenager.  He ran a hand along Carlo's skull, and probed the
wound slightly, making Carlo groan.

"Please don't, you're hurting him," said Lilly.

The man gathered some snow in one hand, and pressed it to the bloody wound.
He then looked at Lilly.

"Untie me, I can help him," she pleaded.

The man looked puzzled, then moved behind her.

Lilly felt clumsy fingers working at the knots in the leather cord that held
her hands behind her, but after a short while they gave up.  There was a
moment of silence, then Lilly felt the soft wet nose of a dog's muzzle at
her wrists.  Lilly held still, aware that one of the wolves was attempting
to bite through her bindings.  She held her breath as she felt teeth pulling
and tugging at her bonds, a hot breath warming her cold hands and saliva
dripping down her fingers.  She wanted to look around but didn't dare.

The wolf gave up though, unable to find good purchase on the tightly wrapped
cord, and moved away.

Lilly looked around for the man, but he was gone.  Instead, the six wolves,
now being joined by the other six who had chased the boys away, all
advanced.

Two came around and nudged Lilly, forcing her away from Carlo.  Lilly tried
to stay close, but each of the animals weighed as much as she did, and while
she wasn't too afraid of them, she did respect their aggressiveness.

The others crowded around Carlo, and for a second Lilly feared there was
going to be a feeding frenzy.  But instead the wolves took hold of Carlo's
furs and began to drag him through the snow.

Lilly was herded along after, and the group slowly made its way deeper into
the forest.

---***---

Down in a narrow, but deep crevasse, a consciousness stirred.  It took a few
seconds deciding what it wanted to be, and the young wolf whined.  He felt a
sharp pain in his side, one of his front paws was bent at an impossible
angle, and he couldn't feel anything below the waist.

He looked up to see how far he had fallen, and almost lost consciousness
again due to dizziness.  The pain was almost overwhelming, yet he knew he
had to concentrate.

Carefully, he 'stretched', and found the precarious hold on the side of the
wall of rock he had been wedged in was suddenly gone.  More scrapes and
bruises were added to his injuries as he slid further down to the snowy
bottom.

Catching his breath, he 'stretched' again, howling at the pain but feeling a
little better afterward.  His paw was now straight again, the pain in his
side less piercing, yet there was still no feeling in his rear half.

The wolf lay panting for a moment, then took another breath and 'stretched'
again.  This time there was a lot of pain, as feeling suddenly flooded in
from his legs.  He groaned and lay back in the cold snow, hoping to numb
some of the pain, but he knew he was far from finished.

With one hand he probed his body as he gathered his strength, noting soft
spots and unnatural bends, then he made that extra special 'stretch' again
and bit off a howl in mid yelp.  There was still a lot of pain, but he
scrambled to his feet for a second before collapsing.  Twice more he pushed
to 'stretch', and each time things felt better.  As he lay resting, he
reflected on the human belief that his kind could only be killed by silver
bullets.

His kind could be killed just as easily as anything else, and he had been
shocked that the fall he just took hadn't been his end.  But then the humans
didn't know how fast they could heal themselves if death didn't claim them.
What seemed like a miracle was just biology, but strange biology.

The young wolf struggled to its feet; glad he could stand and move around.
Yet he knew there was a price to pay, and its survival instincts could not
be denied.  Nature didn't give anything for free, and the price for such
rapid healing was a terrible hunger.  Energy lost to 'stretches' had to
reclaimed, and the young wolf knew it had to hunt right then or die from
exhaustion.  Before the madness took him, he looked up the crevasse to where
the golden one was being hurt and wished he could go help her.  But he had
to feed before he could be of anymore use.  So as the snow started to fall
once more, he let his canine instincts take over in the search for a tasty
snow rabbit.

---***---

Paul Anderson stood at the north gate, looking up the mountain.  His
daughter and the Alvaro boy had been gone most of the day, and now light was
fading as heavy snow clouds began dropping their loads.  Daylight was almost
over, and if Lilly didn't show up soon, breaking curfew would be the least
of her problems.

He wasn't too worried yet about their safety.  He knew his daughter had a
good grip on her survival skills, and he also knew that Carlo had top marks
from his teachers on the same subject.  Both were sure to pass their test in
the summer.

Yet Paul was still uneasy.  He wondered why they had been gone so long, and
couldn't help thinking how a blossoming romance between the two teenagers
might be the reason.

Although it seldom happened, they wouldn't be the first couple to go
sneaking off for some solitude before marrying, yet he couldn't believe his
daughter would do that.  Surely he had brought her up better than that?  But
then she did hang around his sister-in-law a lot.  Paul respected Rhianna a
lot, and liked her even more, yet he couldn't deny that she came from a
different culture, and it disturbed him that Lilly was so drawn to that.
The outside world had already taken one of his children, could he stand it
taking another?

No, Lilly wouldn't be out with Carlo doing some hanky panky.  Yet he had
also thought that of his son Sol, who confessed otherwise shortly before
leaving the Compound.

There was a noise in the snow behind him, and another big man stood next to
the gate.

"Paul," said the man in greeting.

Paul looked over to see whose face was hidden in the hood.  "Grady, what are
you doing out here?"  Paul asked.

Grady shrugged.  "Just...out for a stroll."

"It'll be dark soon!"

Grady looked up at the sky.  "I expect so, but I'm not going far.  I just
need the air."

Paul nodded, concerned about the man.  "Don't make me come out looking for
you!  I hate search parties in the snow."

Grady grinned.  "Remember that the next time you schedule a drill."

"Yes...well...it might be sooner than you think."

"Why is that?"  Grady asked, and Paul told him how he was waiting for Lilly
and Carlo.

Grady shrugged.  "Kids.  If I see them, I'll send them back."

"Do that.  Look, I know you've been off on your own a lot lately, and I
don't want to intrude, but why don't you come sit at our table tonight for
supper.  It'll be good to have you."

"Thanks, but that's okay."

"Shawna will be there; she and Elizabeth are working on a new vestment for
Father Logan, and they want to chat."

Paul could see Grady's eyes light up a little at the mention of Shawna
Michaels.  It was no secret to anyone at the Compound that Grady and Shawna
were attracted to each other, and many people wondered why they still danced
around each other while not admitting it to themselves.  Well, more Grady
than Shawna, really.  Everyone understood that Grady still grieved for the
wife he had lost in the spring, but many also thought that it was time for
him to embrace this new opportunity for happiness before it too faded away.

A lot of people were pulling for the two of them.

"I'll...try to be back in time," Grady said, and he ambled off toward the
tree line.

Paul sighed and resumed his watch.

---***---

It did not take long for the boys to get back to town, especially since they
were in a hurry.  Kale and the others were scared, not just of their own
encounter with the wolves, but of what they found when they reclaimed their
snowmobiles.

Sean had been missing, and the area covered in wolf tracks.  Kale feared the
worst, but the worst to him was not that Sean had been taken by the wolves
to be eaten, but that he, Kale, would be blamed for it.

As he furiously ran the trails, leaving Andy and Ed to make their own way
back on the other sled, Kale thought of all the options open to him.  He
knew there had to be a way to limit the fallout.

In the end, he decided the only option was to play the dumb kid card.  He
decided to go see Kinkade.

It was almost dark by the time he pulled up at the Kinkade home.  He left
the motor running as he leapt off his machine and ran up to the front door.
He saw a police cruiser parked outside, so he knew the Sheriff had to be
home.

He rapped on the door, and a moment later Kinkade opened it.  He was still
in uniform and he didn't look happy.  His scowl deepened at the sight of the
boy.

"Get in here!" he said, stepping to one side.  Kale came in out of the cold,
and Kinkade looked behind him, expecting his errant son to be following.  He
was startled to see that Kale was alone.

"Where's Sean?" he asked angrily.

"Sir," said Kale looking down and trying his best to look upset.  "I'm sorry
Sir, we were just ditching school.  We didn't know there were wolves up
there."

"Wolves?  Wait a minute.  Where's Sean?"

"Up...up on the mountain.  We got separated and I think some wolves found
him.  There were tracks and everything!"

There was an intake of breath from the kitchen door, and Kinkade looked up
to see his wife standing in the doorway, visibly upset.

Kinkade grabbed Kale and propelled him outside, out of earshot of his wife.
"You left him up there?"  Kinkade was pissed and also a little scared.

"We couldn't find him.  And it was getting dark and the snow was coming down
again!"

Kinkade sighed, getting more worried by the second.  "What about blood, did
you find any of that?"

Kale paused, wondering which answer would be more advantageous to him.  He
figured that by telling Kinkade about Sean, everything else would take a
back seat.  He could also play the grieving friend; after all, who would
throw the book at a boy who just lost one of his playmates?

"No," he said, "no blood."

"Then he could have gotten away?"

Kale shrugged.  "He could, I guess, but we couldn't find him."  In truth,
Kale hadn't even bothered to look.  He saw the tracks and decided to take
off.  Andy and Ed followed, although they had wanted to stay.

Kinkade let the boy go and walked away to think.  He looked up at the dark
sky and at the snow coming down.  It was a fairly light snowfall, but he
knew that on the mountain it could well be heavier.  The thought of Sean
being alone up there chilled him, especially if there were wolves.

"Wait here," he told the boy and he went inside.

As he began to put on his coat, his wife came over to him.

"What's going on, where's Sean?" she asked.

"He's on the mountain," Kinkade answered gently, although inside his anger
and worry was churning.

"What did that boy say he saw, wolves?"

"He saw tracks, that's all, and he's probably mistaken.  There aren't any
wolves this far south in the Rockies anymore.

"But if he's telling the truth?"

"Even if he is, wolves run from humans."  Kinkade hugged his wife.  "I need
to go look for him."

"Alright, shall I call Derek?"  Derek was one of Kinkade's chief deputies.

"No, I'll take care of it."  He kissed her then let her go.  Without looking
back, he left the house, and his wife sank to the floor.  There she sat the
rest of the night, praying.

Outside, Kinkade grabbed the boy and walked him to the still running
snowmobile.  "You're taking me to the Compound; I know you know the way!"

"I'm not going back up there again!" yelled Kale.

"Yes, you are; you're going to show me those tracks!"

"Then why go to the Compound?"

Kinkade didn't answer that one, although he had an answer.  He knew it would
take time for his own men to get organized and outfitted for a winter search
of the mountain, and he felt he didn't have that time.  He knew the men of
the Compound would be a better option, especially since they knew the
ground.

The man and the boy swung astride the sled, and Kinkade hung on as Kale
drove them back up into the snowstorm.

---***---

Lilly thought she knew the mountain pretty well, having had explored its
every inch as a child with her friends.  Yet the crack in the cliff side
took her totally by surprise.  She was fairly sure she had been this way
before, although many of the landmarks from summer were now covered in snow,
but it had never looked like a place that would go anywhere.

Now it looked like there was a place to go after all, as a trail in the snow
led right up to the cliff face.

There was a crack, cunningly hidden by its own topography.  Stand ten feet
away, and the lines of stone completely masked the fact that an extension of
rock hid a way through it.

The crack wasn't large, though, and Lilly wondered if she could get through
it.  As it was, she knew she would be crawling on her knees, her hands held
behind her by the leather cord Carlo had tied her with, and she hoped it
opened up further on.  She watched as several wolves disappeared into the
crack, and she noticed two more wolves sitting high up on either side of the
pathway, almost like sentries.  The two wolves glared down at her, it
seemed, before returning their attention to far down the path.

Lilly watched, concerned, as a couple of wolves dragged the unconscious body
of Carlo to the crack.  The wolves had done a fair job of transporting the
boy this far; the snow and his heavy furs making the job a lot easier than
it could have been.  But now they had a narrow passage to navigate.

There was not enough room for more than one animal at a time in the crack,
so one of the bigger wolves, once they got Carlo into position, grabbed one
of the boy's shoulders and dragged him backwards inside.

The rest waited patiently as the boy and wolf slowly vanished.

Lilly saw the wolf she took to be the leader visit each of the wolves she
thought looked like sentries.  The leader would nuzzle each wolf for a
minute, before moving on to the next.

Looking around, Lilly wondered where the man she had seen had gone.  If
these were his wolves, he should have been around here somewhere.  She
lifted her shoulders and shuddered as a cold blast of air swirled against
the cliff face, carrying newly fallen snow that threatened to quickly bury
the trail they had followed.  Lilly hoped that the man, whoever he was, had
found some clothes to wear.  This was not a place to be naked.

Soon it was her turn, and at the persistent urging of the wolves remaining
outside, she dropped down and bent over.

It was a tight fit, tighter than she thought as she struggled to keep
moving.  Having her hands tied behind her made the journey awkward indeed,
and she hoped Carlo would wake up so he could untie her.  She had worried
about her friend the whole trip up here, and wished she could take him back
to the Compound where Dr. Miller could examine him.  But for now all she
could do was crawl through a very tight fitting tunnel in the rock.
Occasionally she bumped her head against the rock walls, and once she had to
scoot forward almost on her stomach, her face pressed against the cool dirt
floor.

She knew that some wolves liked to dig out underground dens, and if this
were the case here, she would really be in trouble.  Already she couldn't
see anything, and she didn't fancy being blind with these animals.  She felt
a nose push at her butt, and she tried to go faster.  Then she got a nice
surprise.  There WAS light at the end of this tunnel.

With something to crawl towards, and with an ever-lessening chance of
bumping her head, she made it to the other side and gratefully stood up.

It took a moment for her to take in everything she could see.

It was a sink hole of sorts, surrounded by steep rock walls, and covered
overhead by overhanging trees.  There were enough gaps for the fast setting
sun to still show itself, but most of the light here was provided by small
camp fires scattered about the place.  Lilly expected to see snow on the
ground, but there wasn't a scrap to be found and she could see why.  Spread
around were deep looking pools of water, apparently heated naturally by hot
springs.  The steaming pools were everywhere, and all that heat had warmed
up the rocky floor itself.  It was actually warm in here, certainly warm
enough for snow not to have a chance, and as it turned out, warm enough for
Lilly not to have worried about the naked man she had seen.

He was there ahead of them, along with almost two dozen men and women, who
sat or stood or lay around the pools, all naked, and all with the same short
hairstyle.  Lilly couldn't see any of the wolves that had come in before
her, but the people were enough to grab her attention.

The man she had met before stood up and walked to her.  He stopped about
five feet in front of her and nodded.  Extending his hands, he said one
word, "Weeelcomme."

---***---

The parents were getting worried.  Paul Anderson and Miguel Alvaro, Carlo's
father, sat conversing together with a few other men in one corner of the
Great Hall.  Elizabeth sat with Carlo's mother and the other women and
children of the Alvaro clan in mutual support.  It was now fully dark
outside, and the snow was dropping like bricks.

The men were trying to decide if a search party should go out right then, or
if they could wait until morning.  Miguel was all for a trip outside, but
Paul was cautioning restraint.  He still believed that Carlo and Lilly would
know how to handle themselves in the storm.  If they got stopped in the dark
before they could get back to the Compound, he knew they would be okay with
the emergency sack he knew Carlo would have taken.  They would survive a
night out alone, but just one.  It was important that they were found the
next day.  Still, he wondered what could possibly have prevented them from
getting back, and he hoped that the teenagers weren't doing this on purpose
so they could get an uninterrupted night together alone.  If that were the
case, he knew his daughter would be an old maid before she got the chance to
go courting again.

Tired of the talk around him, Paul looked about the Great Hall where many of
the community was beginning to assemble, all worried and lending their
support as news of Lilly and Carlo filtered through to everybody.

At a table a little ways away, Paul saw his old friend Robert Klink in close
conference with many of the community elders, and Klink looked worried
indeed.  It lightened Paul's load a little to know that his predecessor in
his difficult job was as concerned as he was.  Paul wondered if he ought to
go ask Robert for some advice, but didn't want to interrupt him.  He looked
deep in conference.

"That is NOT the reason they are still out there!" Robert Klink whispered to
the men and women at the table.

"It HAS to be, Robert," said Leann Miller softly, "what else would keep
those young people from making it back before curfew?"

"It could be anything; they might have gone off just to be alone.  You can't
trust the youth of today as much as you used to."

"I trust my niece," said Bill Anderson, patting the head of his dog, who sat
between his feet.  "Don't you tell ME that she's out doing some hanky
panky."

"He's right, Robert," added Leann, "both those children are well trusted.
Which only leaves the Loup-garou."

"And you sent them away; refused to help them as we did thirty years ago,"
said Bill, shaken by the knowledge that the Loup-garou had returned.  He was
the only one left who had intimate knowledge of them, not even Robert knew
what HE knew, yet Bill Anderson never spoke of it. Never.

"Without consulting us first, I might add," finished Leann.

Robert leaned forward even more.  "You mean to tell me you would have
allowed some of our people to...involve themselves...carnally...with those
creatures?"

Leann, Bill, and a few of the others at the table exchanged looks, none of
them wanting to be too forward about this matter.  It was finally Leann who
broke the silence.  "We would at least have liked to have talked it over
first, Robert, without you going off on your own and summarily making that
decision yourself."

Robert grunted.

"Still," said Bill, "I think you should tell Paul; he has to know about
them.  Rob, he should have been told when he took your job."

"The Loup-garou are no concern of his," said Robert, "they have been dealt
with."

"Have they?"  Bill asked, concerned.

Before Robert could answer, there was a commotion at one of the doors.
Several people entered the Great Hall at once, including two men in modern
clothing.  One was in a snowsuit, the other in the winter uniform of the
Sheriff's Department.

Paul stood up, recognizing his friend Kinkade right away.  The other
man--no, not a man, a boy--took him a moment longer.  It was the boy who
took the photographs; Kale.

They were stamping and brushing snow off themselves, glad to have made it to
the Compound through the ever-increasing snowfall.  Kinkade nodded a
greeting to Paul, while Kale stared wide-eyed about the hall.  Kale had
expected to encounter wall-to-wall naked people, with maybe a few orgies in
plain view.  Instead, he saw a room filled with people fully dressed in
furs, leather, and cloth.  Not really the image of Sodom he had been led to
believe.

"What brings you up here, Sheriff?" Paul asked Kinkade.

"A missing person, maybe on the mountain."

Kinkade's answer caused a stir among the audience.  He looked about
suspiciously.  "What's going on?"

"It seems the mountain is claiming more than we thought.  We too have
missing people," said Paul, and as he said that, it suddenly occurred to him
that he hadn't seen Grady since he left either.

"How many?" asked Kinkade.

Paul looked around.  "Has anyone seen Grady in the last few minutes?" he
asked, raising his voice so all could hear him.

People looked at each other and shook their heads.  One woman pushed forward
through the group.

"Grady?" she said, "Is he missing too?"  It was Shawna, dressed more fully
this time in a soft leather dress cut with a low neckline.

Paul sighed.  "He might be; I don't know.  We should search the Compound to
check.  If he is gone, then we have three out there somewhere."

"And I have one," said Kinkade, "My son Sean."

Paul frowned.  "What was he doing on the mountain?"

"He was with this boy," Kinkade said, gesturing at Kale, "They
were...ditching school.  This boy talked about wolves maybe taking him, but
there aren't any wolves here, right?"

Wolves, that got Paul's attention.  He remembered Patch's story about the
talking wolf, the one who changed into a man and back again in the blink of
an eye.  Coincidence?

Paul didn't like coincidences.

"Normally no, but wolves migrate north and south with the seasons, following
the Rockies.  They do pass through from time to time," he said cautiously,
thinking of what Patch had said.

"So you think they're out there?"

Paul didn't want to answer that.

They were interrupted by one of the kitchen staff.  This young woman handed
Kinkade a mug of coffee, which the shivering Sheriff gladly accepted.  She
then moved on to Kale, and handed him a mug filled with a hot broth.  Coffee
was reserved for the adults.

Kale's eyes almost bugged out, for instead of being wrapped up like most of
the others in the hall at the moment, this woman was dressed more in keeping
with her duties on the other side of the hearths.  Below her waist she wore
just her loincloth, and above, a vest or waistcoat-like affair that didn't
draw close enough to button in the front.  It covered her breasts, but left
no doubt that she wore nothing underneath it.

She smiled at Kale as she handed him the mug, and the boy, quick to recover,
smiled back.  Then he began to leer openly at the scantily clad maiden.  The
girl began to feel uncomfortable.  Such open displays of lust were not
common here, and she was at a loss to know how to deal with it.

Paul noticed her discomfort.  "Kate, go back to the kitchen," he ordered.

Kate nodded and left the group, glad to do so.  Kale watched her ass as she
disappeared into the crowd, and grinned.  Looking up, he caught the eye of
some of the men who had observed his lack of manners.  They openly scowled
at him, reinforced in their beliefs that the townsfolk were uncivilized
despite all their technology.  Kale sneered at them and took a swig of his
drink.  He grimaced and forced it down.  He would have spit it out, but he
was afraid the Sheriff wouldn't like it.  The rest of the people here he
didn't care about.  He noticed another young woman with a toddler in her
arms, and stared at them for a while.

"Maybe we should go out looking tonight after all," said Paul.

"No," Kinkade replied, shaking his head, "not unless you guys have radar.
We almost didn't get here, and that was on a well marked trail.  Five feet
into the trees and you'd be lost, and even if you weren't, you wouldn't be
able to see anything.  It will have to wait until morning, and we're stuck
here until then anyway."

Paul sighed and noticed Vicky, one of Gabe Miller's nurses, standing next to
him, trying to get his attention.

"What is it, Vicky?" Paul asked.

"Sir, you're needed at the clinic, Grady just brought someone in from the
outside."

"At the clinic?  Who did Grady bring in?"

"We don't know; it isn't one of us."

Kinkade moved closer.  "It has to be Sean if it isn't one of you."

"Come on then," said Paul.

A parade of people followed the two men out of the Great Hall and along the
passages to the community's hospital.  Unlike the rest of the Compound, the
clinic was equipped with up to date technology.  The people of the Compound
were very ready to reject Mankind's modern advances in most respects, but
they didn't fool around with their health.  No philosophy was worth a
person's life.

Paul, Kinkade, Kale, Vicky, and Shawna all made it into the clinic before
Gabe Miller, their doctor, stopped the flow.

"Enough already," he said.  "Wait outside, please!"

Shawna went straight to Grady and the couple stood uncertainly, but
obviously glad to see each other.  They didn't notice Gabe watching them,
his normally happy demeanor turned into a frown.  He too was attracted to
Shawna, the latest addition to the Compound, and had run a rather
unsuccessful campaign to win her affection.  It wasn't a complete loss, but
being "Almost like a brother" was not what Gabe had planned for him and
Shawna.  But he still had hope, as long as Grady waffled between what he
wanted and what he could accept.  Eventually he hoped Shawna would get
frustrated enough to end her pursuit of the big blacksmith.

To cover his frustration over his love life, he turned his attention to his
patient, and led the group over to his examining room, visible through an
arch on the other side of the waiting room.

Inside, Kale found a corner to stand in, and kept his eye on the shapely
Vicky, who was busy helping the doctor make the patient comfortable.

The men went straight to the examining table and saw it was occupied by a
young man.  He looked bruised and battered, with lots of half healed scars
and injuries visible on his mostly naked body.  Gabe had spread a sheet over
him for modesty's sake, but it was pulled back in places to show his wounds.
He appeared to be asleep.

"It's not Sean," Kinkade said sadly.

"Then who is he?"  Paul asked.

"No one I recognize, he's not from town."

"Then where did he come from?"  Paul asked.  "Grady, where did you find
him?"

The big blacksmith looked up from Shawna whose hand he held.  "I found him
outside, up the hill a ways.  He was stumbling through the snow naked, blood
on his face.  He looked half dead.  I wrapped him up and brought him in
before he froze to death."

"This makes no sense to me," said Paul and Kinkade agreed.  "How is he?"

Gabe sighed.  "There's evidence of exposure, malnutrition, although his
muscle tone is very good indeed.  It's kind of puzzling really, like he's
been on a recent starvation diet.  There are also lots of old injuries on
the boy, he's been pretty beat up at times.  I'd suspect a few recently
broken bones, but I'd need to x-ray him, and I don't think that's necessary.
On the whole, I think he just needs rest and a good feeding for now, and
maybe a tetanus shot for those scratches."

"Thank you, Doctor," said Paul, who turned to converse with his town
counterpart.

Behind them, having been let through the line, Robert Klink entered quietly.
He took one look at the boy on the table and his blood froze.  There was no
mistaking that hair, that odd looking face.

It was one of them!

It was a Loup-garou!

Robert Klink started to scream!



End of Part 7



Catch up on all my stories at http://www.writingsofleviticus.cjb.net
If you're having problems contacting me, try leviticusthebard@hotmail.com

-- 
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
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