I looked him in the eyes. I got into a sprawling position. His face turned to concrete, his legs were as frozen as his expression. I let out a large growl. He finally began to sprint away from me. After he turned the corner, my eyes narrowed forward as I began to continue down the dark hall. The footsteps ahead of me started to become softer.

 “His effort is impressive, but hiding will do him no good.”

I increased my pace in order to still follow the sound of his loud shoes tapping the tile floor. As soon as I did, he sped up again. He can’t outrun me, but I need him to keep trying. I had started stalling behind him enough so he could hear me, but not see me. Sure, he may think I am as slow as him, but I let him stay ahead of me for quite a while. Everytime he turned a corner, I quickly pursued the next corner and stalked him running down the hall. My goal was to intimidate him enough to become hysterical. If he thinks I could be a larger threat, he could make a desperate panic move, and pull the files from the laptop before I get to him. I have to hope he will be dumb enough to open the computer and make that attempt.

He was getting desperate. He began to crash into everything in his way. His breathing was getting louder and louder. We were getting close to the room I believed the computer was held.

“Be brave, take the ship down with you captain!”

I heard another crashing noise and a small yelp.

“He can’t get that far.”

I wished he would put himself out of his misery, all he needs is to open the laptop. I juggled the idea earlier of intimidating him into opening the computer myself. But, if I confirmed that the files were truly what I was after, he would rather take a slow death then hand them over.

I appeared from the corner I was stalling from and made as many threatening noises as possible as I revealed myself. This was the first time since our chase began that I saw his face. He was sweating profusely and his arm was cut. It looked like he had run into a glass divider. An ounce of me thought I could help him. I quickly ruled out the idea.

“I doubt kindness from his deadly pursuer would encourage assistance, ineffective.”

Grace gets you nowhere. I never feel able to remember that.

He picked himself up as fast as his injury would let him, and ran away again. I continued to scare him into running away. As he did, he started yelling for help. Unfortunately, I don’t think there was anyone left to help him.

After  we crashed through the next few corridors we began to approach the hall with the laptop’s room. I listened to his steps, and slowed down. I want to give him hope he’s far enough from to have time and save the files from me. I heard a door open, close, and lock fast. I got out of sight and into a sprawling position. Pulling the files off the laptop would take seconds. As soon as I heard the computer chime, confirming a login, I would have to sprint to the door and stop him from doing any damages as fast as I could. My ears twitched. My legs tightened. I was ready, all he had to do was put in the password to get in. I closed my eyes and tried to tolerate the suspenseful seconds of silence. I breathed in hard, when I breathed out I grunted a little. I breathed in again as I prepped my head. I mapped my surroundings from my memory and recited a plan in my head as many times as I could.

I will have to bash open the door with my full body weight.

I will use my arms to give myself momentum to get through. 

I will find where he is standing, and get him away from the laptop.

Then I can finally finish my mission. I need to be perfect. There is not going to be much time between him logging in and deleting the files.

I hardly had enough time before I heard it.

The laptop let out a low bell sound. He had done it. My legs crushed the tile. I bounded through the hall, scraping the walls, floor, and soon, the door between me and the laptop was shattered and split everywhere. I crashed into the room and saw him opening the exact program I was here for. He didn’t even look at me, he was placing his cursor on the file with extreme focus.  One step later I run him over. My shoulder crushes his chest and sends him flying. He falls on his back and catches his breath before a sharp cough. I look up at the glowing monitor. “T.H.E.” was still on screen, intact and certainly not deleted or moved. My eyes went back down. He tried to drag himself out of the room, but I quickly grabbed his ankle.

“It’s Actions. Send a message.”

I had made an absolute mess of this mans co-workers. I thought of some of the worse ones. I had caused a lot of violence tonight. It got to the point where I guessed some victims wouldn’t be able to be identified by police. I refused to let myself go into detail. I was the cause, and I was disgusted by what happened. It doesn't matter what happened, all I know is that I need to continue to get creative with my assassinations.

I took a pen from the “World’s Best Dad” mug on the desk. That hurt me a little bit, knowing someone's father wouldn’t ever be home again. Some child has lost his dad. He’s simply gone. By my hand. There's nothing I could do now.

“Whatever it takes…”

 My mind stopped racing again. I quickly reminded myself why I was here and the idea didn't bother me much anymore. I plunged the pen into the side of my prey’s shaky throat. After our long chase, the man finally didn’t need to be scared anymore. He was gone. His throat shrunk slowly again as his heart stopped. I left the pen where I had jabbed it. I wanted someone else to have to clean up. I wasn’t up for the task, I would feel even more broken.

I finally pulled myself up, my paw had blood still stuck in it. I shook off what I could on my chest and stepped by the computer. I pride myself in being tech savvy. I set up the encryption address I determined earlier. After browsing through server lists, I found the one I wanted. It read “Washington D.C. (3) - STATUS: Private.”. This would be enough to scare the government. They already know what we are doing, might as well rub it in their face. I clicked the send button and began to wait. Just a few seconds later, I got the green light over my message. Finally I self destructed the message using the program I helped write beforehand. By the goals stated, the mission was officially a success.

On my way out, I broke what valuable property I could. I just wanted to cause as much expense as I could. I broke outlets, monitors, and server towers. Anything of value was in pieces. 

When I walked out, I took one last look at my victim. The man had run from me well. It’s sad he believed he died after causing a crisis. His lifeless eyes looked exhausted and even more shocked. I almost felt bad before I turned the corner, in hopes to never look at his corpse again.

After slowly traveling back the way I came from, my eyes set forward on where the exit doors were. I already knew what surrounded the path there, I didn’t need to see the blood and rubble again. I was close to the end of the hall, I could see the outside through the door shaped hole. The night was dark and gloomy. The beautiful wheat rustled in the wind. A cool breeze hit me as I got closer and closer. The moon was thin but still so bright. It was so peaceful for how violent my evening had been.

I cut through the grass. My fur ran through the tall wheat. I used the different hills to check my position and make sure I was going the right way. I hurried, if the clocks in the facility were correct, I had about 3 minutes to get to the checkpoint. I pushed through harder. I breathed heavier. Every step flew me forward just a little faster. If I wasn’t mistaken, I only had to travel another mile or two.

I heard a crowd nearby, and peaked around a massive rock. I saw the old market I had been told about. East should be disguised as a salesman on the edge of the venders square. I searched. He had to be here somewhere. I spotted a man in a red hat selling toys to children. I made out East’s signature golden eyes, even from above the other side of the market. I made a muffled growl in his direction. He looked right to the other edge of the square before meeting my gaze ahead of him. His head nodded, his eyes met a tall hill in front and to the left of me. I saw a small pouch right on top of it. It was marked as a first aid kit, but it was so out of place. I knew what it was really for.

I nodded back at east but he already began a distraction. “Oh no!” He yelped. 

A little firework toy had been lit by his foot. It hissed and sparks flew from the back of his makeshift shop. As everyone’s attention shifted to the other side of the square, I picked up the first aid kit and extracted the syringe. As soon as the small rocket gave liftoff, I jabbed the syringe in my chest and pushed the medication in. I felt the familiar needle feeling, as it stung my torso, and the liquid inside began to flow through my body. My heart rate increased immediately. My limbs felt weak. I almost fell backwards, but adjusted my weight forward. I was getting smaller. The clothing around me no longer seemed so tight. The firework exploded at a deafening volume. I was beyond startled as I accidentally jabbed the needle just too far into my chest. This caused me to face plant on the downward slope ahead of me. I fell down the hill and towards the square, spinning quickly. I tried to stop myself, but I was already speeding down the hill much too fast. All I could see was dirt rolling around me. My head was rotating rapidly and I almost completely forgot about the needle. 

“If they see that, they will test it for the treatment. You’ll be done!”

I reached for the syringe, but my hand was crushed by my body landing on my wrist. I tried again, and pulled part of the needle out before the hill crushed my chest again. I composed myself. The wind was being rapidly knocked out of me after every spin. I put all of my attention into removing the needle. As my chest crashed into the hill one last time, I moved swiftly. I was able to extract the needle and drop it  in the thick wheat grass just a second before I landed in the square.

I quickly checked my hand. I needed to make sure I looked completely human. Sure enough, my fur was gone. I had pale, smooth skin and my sharp claws had been replaced with finger nails. My feet had shorted down and the hair covering my face had dulled down to a short beard.

I am no longer a wolf, for now, I am a man.

I started to get to my feet, but an owner of a shop helped me up before I was completely vertical

“Thank you.”

My voice was very smooth compared to my usual growls. I hardly recognized it as my own.

“Your chest is bleeding.”

I looked down. It was dripping profusely. The needle left a deep scrape and was drawing more blood then I would have expected.

“Must have been a rock I tripped on earlier”

“I have a bandage somewhere around here.”

He searched his little shop. His treatment would only make the problem worse. East was the only one who could really help.

“No thanks, I can get one somewhere else.”

“Well what’s the point of that when you can get one here?”

Unfortunately he was right. I couldn’t muster out any excuse as to get a bandage from East that wouldn’t cause suspicion.

“You are losing blood fast, please, lie down.”

“I HAVE IT FROM HERE!”

East ran to me, his voice was as loud and provocative as ever. He spoke too quick in order for the shop owner to muster in any words.

“I have my own treatments in my shop. He could have snake venom in his chest and all sorts of harmful diseases. I can heal him quicker.”

He picked up my arm too tightly. It hurt, but I wanted the shop owner to think East is the responsible person he is claiming to be.

“I don’t think you should…”

“Sorry to take him from you, I just really don’t want you to waste your precious first aid when I have plenty in my booth!”

There wasn’t any protest from the man as we left the booth. In fact he fell completely silent and stared us down as we walked off.

East helped me to his little “shop.” It was quite nice, and yet such a simple design, being pitched up by wood and a cloth. He sat me down and poured some alcohol onto a rag and dabbed my bleeding chest.

“Hold it there.” he said as he handed the cloth to me.

I got comfortable and breathed heavy.

East dug under a counter in search of something. “I called in a ATV, you will be picked up shortly.”

“So the flights a no go?”

“After a closer look, your condition right now would be fatal to a real human. Anyone on the plane would insist you get a doctors assistance.”

“Can’t I just hide my cut?”

“I wouldn’t call that just a cut. That wound could bleed through almost any fabric. Besides, I’ve already made the call.”

I didn’t oppose any longer. I just sat back and waited for the ATV to arrive.

We sat in silence for a couple minutes. I broke the silence after realizing that we could be here a while longer.

“Why is there no patrol out here?” I asked

“It’s too rural, and poor.” East replied

“Doesn't that mean crime would be more present?”

East didn’t look at me. I don’t know if he was looking for the ATV or the subject was too sensitive for him to bear. “These days it’s the wealthy trying to get the cuts of illegal trade. To even buy in on T.H.E. takes millions. The government dosn’t want to be involved in penny theft when they get more from catching blue bloods.”

“What about the violence that happens out here? There are more crimes that aren’t just for money.”

“They don’t care, these people are just pawns to them. The government is focusing more on the weapons like you.”

“Why?”

“They have fear.”

We both paused. I thought about it for a while before I spoke.

“Of me?”

“Yes.”