Page 3 of Run Free

When I reached the shower trailer, I took my clothes off, leaving them in a heap on the floor. I turned on the water, sat down on the floor of the shower stall, and then cried as the water washed over me. I wasn’t an extremely emotional person, but the devastation done to the animals was heart-wrenching.

While I was on duty, I remained emotionless. It was how I always functioned in high crisis situations, but alone with time to process all I’d seen and done, I was a mess. It was one of the biggest reasons I had put off taking a break at all. I let myself sit there and cry, mourning the loss of life I’d witnessed, then I got up and washed off the remaining blood and memories as I dried my tears, hardened my heart, and changed into fresh clothes. Time to get back to work.

Gage

Chapter 3

I was so tired. I tried to open my eyes. I tried to lift my head off the cold ground but found I could do neither. I thought my wolf had already died, despite being stuck in his form, but he was up and more energized than I could remember in days, maybe weeks.

I heard the sound of a truck and recoiled as far back in the cage as my size and tired muscles could manage. I sniffed the air. That wasn’t them. The smells were all new. One of them was even pleasant, like coconut and happy times that made my wolf react.

He tried to stand and had no more luck than I’d had when I’d tried to force it. I felt the familiar ripple wash over me and I shivered lying now in my naked human form.

I sighed. I hadn’t even been able to control the shift. This was not good. Still, if new people were here, maybe I could find help. I yelled out, “Help,” but all that escaped me was a hoarse whisper lost on the wind.

I tried again, and again. By the fifth try a small squeak came out. “Help me,” I cried out with all my might.

The coconut scent grew stronger. I pushed myself up on shaky arms and yelled, but barely a noise was made. My throat was too parched; it felt like sandpaper when I swallowed. My tongue felt too large for my mouth, and I was too weak to do anything about it.

The scent slowly faded, and I collapsed back onto the floor of my cage. I shifted immediately back to my wolf, who felt more miserable than I could ever remember. He actually tried to howl, but just like my tries at calling for help, no noise was made.

I was resolved to the fact that I would die here. I lay my head back down, closed my eyes, and waited, praying death would take me quickly.

Clara

Chapter 4

For three days straight, I’d been working endlessly. I’d gotten maybe six hours of sleep since we arrived. Jacob had another emergency call the day after we got here and I was immediately put in charge. While I was somewhat nervous, it turned out I had a great team and everyone knew their jobs well.

We were finally through surgeries of the worst cases, and most of the Red patients had been attended to. It had gone faster than I expected, but that was just a testament to the quality of people I was working with. We still had a few more days ahead of us just in-patient care, but I had a second team already beginning cleanup. Working simultaneously could have me home within a week.

“Clara, one of the beavers didn’t make it. They’re taking him out now,” Dave informed me.

“The male?” I asked.

“Afraid so.”

“Dammit! I knew I should have stayed with him last night.”

“Don’t,” he said. “You can’t do that to yourself. You needed the sleep. We did everything we could for him.”

“I know that, in my head I know, but it kills me to lose any one of them. They’ve suffered so much here.”

“Yeah, they have, but that little guy isn’t going to be suffering anymore,” he reminded me.

“I need a break. I still have that African hirola that needs surgery to repair his punctured lung. I have him sedated and his lung inflated, but he still needs a permanent patch. I’ll hold off on that until tomorrow. I just can’t get over how many endangered species are here.”

“It’s an impressive lot. If they’d only taken care of them properly,” Dave said.

I nodded in agreement. “I’m going to take a walk around and see how things are looking out there. I’ll be back shortly.”

I left the clinic and stretched, trying to work out some of the kinks in my aching back. The sad thing was that this place could have been beautiful. The landscaping needed minimal work, the diversity in species was amazing, so what went wrong? I wish I had the answers to that. I would never understand how anyone could treat any living thing the way these animals had been treated.

I walked towards a large pond. It had been full of dying fish and diseased or poisoned reptiles. It was one of the first projects I had put the cleanup crew on and I was happy to see that the water was safe enough for two healthy ducks to be swimming along in it.

The ducks swam straight over to me. I stared at them for a moment and then shook my head. “Alfred, Miriam, is that you?” I asked them.

The male looked around then shifted while the female stood watch.

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