Survivors - Second place winner: AmarniSanaya

The Silver Lining Challenge

       Alex's legs charged beneath him. His arms pumped alongside him. His breath came out in ragged puffs. Glancing to Mae, who ran alongside him with her blonde braids streaming behind her, he couldn't help but grin with victory. They'd done it. A year of planning their escape had been successful. The metal and glass of the arcology the humans had kept them imprisoned in was behind them. The fields of vegetables they tore across were being harvested by robots. Beyond the fields was the forest – freedom.

       It was surreal to be looking at the leafy greenness which covered the mountains. Five years ago, it'd been their pack's home, a village nestled amongst the forest. Until The Capital's guards had stepped out of a holographic portal without any warning and taken them capture. The village had been set alight before their very eyes as they were taken away on the back of the guards' steeds.

       One year ago, while him and Mae had been milling about the camp dreading the three-hundred-and-sixty-five days when they would be taken away by the guards, a guard had approached them.

       The both of them had wondered if they'd lost count of their days as he'd crouched in front of them. Then Alex had seen the scarred skin on his wrist – the brand of the werewolf. 'There is a cure a wizard has created in the depths of the forest. It can turn any werewolf into a normal human, you'll be able to live a life of freedom and without fear. It's called The Silver Lining.'

       Alex didn't know why the guard had chosen him and Mae to tell. And they weren't sure why they never questioned him. But that night they'd begun devising a plan. The gates of the camp only opened on the young wolves' 21st birthdays – when they'd be taken by the guards to fulfill the destiny the humans had assigned to them. The male wolves would use their wolf forms in way alongside the humans who were protected by a VR shield. The she-wolves were taken to be artificially inseminated with the strongest soldiers' seeds. Today was Alex's and Mae's birthdays. He didn't want a life fighting their enemies' battles. She didn't want to be a breeding machine.

       The two wolves continued tearing across the fields. The guards were quickly approaching aboard their black chargers. Drones whizzed around in the sky with sirens that made Alex's sensitive ears ache. But they were so close to freedom. They weren't about to give up now. Finding a fresh surge of energy, he clasped Mae's hand tightly in his and dragged her along with him. The smells of the forest loomed close and despite the utter chaos of their escape, Alex found an inner calmness as he breathed the earthy scents in deeply. The wolf inside him danced inside of him with happiness when he was able to smell anything from the outside.

      The thick boundary of the forest reached them, and still holding Mae's hand tightly, Alex leapt through the foliage. Leaves and twigs scratched at his skin, making it sting and bleed, but he charged on. Mae was beginning to puff louder behind him yet she continued keep up with his fast pace. Cast a look over his shoulder, his eyes widened at the sight of the guards on horseback mowing through the foliage like it was nothing. Just when he'd turned back around, he slammed on the brakes, gripping Mae tightly as they came to a sheer drop. Rocks tumbled from the edge and Alex's eyes followed them down as they fell through the greenery.

       Crap.

       The thundering of the horses' hooves approached quicker. There was the option of shifting into their wolf forms but they'd been dormant for years. The Capital outlawed shifting, a crime punishable by death. The only time a werewolf could shift was when they were in battle. If they chose to shift he wasn't sure how clumsy their reflexes would be in their wolf forms.

       'Now what?' Mae was breathing heavily, her pale cheeks tinged with red and slashed by the forest.

       'Jump!'

       'What!?'

       'Jump!'

       Before she could protest further Alex gripped her hand tightly and pulled her over the edge with him. The sky and ground merged together in a spiral of blue and green as they tumbled down the mountainside. At the top Alex heard the horsemen come to a skidding halt. Both him and Mae let out sounds of agony as their bodies continued tumbling, colliding with rocks and fallen trees along the way. Finally, when Alex thought he couldn't take anymore, they came to a stop at the bottom. After the world rightened, he rolled onto his front, keeping hidden amongst the bushes as he watched the horsemen gallop away from the cliff edge. With a sigh of relief, Alex let his body flop down. They might've lost them for now but they would continue searching for them. Thank Moon Goddess the drones couldn't move through the thick forestry.

       Mae laid next to him, breathing heavily as she looked at the sky above the tall trees. The girl he'd grown up with in the village was no longer a picture of innocence. Her blonde hair, while still long, was now brushed to one side to expose patterns shaved into the other half of her scalp. Her ears were littered with piercings, mostly ones of long chains that connected around her ear like a web. Even her eyes, as blue as the ocean, were no longer wide with childlike innocence and wonder but hardened with the struggles of their lives. The death of both their parents inside the camp had traumatised them both, but it'd changed Mae the most.

       'Come on.' Alex held a hand out to her, wincing against the pain of his body. 'We better keep moving.'

       Mae nodded and allowed him to heave her to her feet. In the guards outfits their friend on the inside had managed to sneak to them, she looked more like a soldier than the breeder the humans had assigned her to be. As they continued moving through the forestry, Alex wondered if the guard had been killed for treason and couldn't help but feel a little guilty. But he also felt doubtful when he thought of the guard. If he could double cross The Capital then what would prevent him from tricking two naïve werewolves?

       After an hour of walking, a flowing stream came into view and him and Mae staggered towards it eagerly before dropping to their knees by the stony bank. They both cupped their hands beneath the water's surface and slurped the clear liquid greedily. Alex closed his eyes and let the sweet taste of rainfall dance upon his tastebuds. His wolf purred with pleasure. This stuff was much better than the man-made water the arcology produced.

       Anything was better than what the humans produced.

       Knocking the guard's helmet from his head, Alex shoved his entire head underwater before pulling up and shaking his hair about like a dog. Mae scowled, but a hint of a smile was on her lips when she earnt some droplets to the face. Alex grinned, looking down at his reflection the water provided. His brown hair was shaggy, a braided rat's tail curling around his neck. Mae had done it when they'd gotten bored once and he'd never got around to taking it out. The spark in his brown eyes had gone, although the dimple in his cheek still remained. A dimple is the mark of a mischief maker, is what his mother used to say. And she'd been right. He and Mae had got up to all sorts of antics when they were young. Before the humans had raided their village, murdered their people and enslaved the survivors.

       'Do you really think there's a wizard?' asked Mae once they resumed walking through the forest. 'I mean, what's the plan here? Keep walking until we find him? That could take years!'

       Alex shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant when inside he was beginning to feel unconfident. 'I'd rather be out here than in there.'

       A tortured look came onto Mae's face and he noticed her shudder with the unpleasant memories the camp held. 'I guess so,' she said in a small voice.

       It'd been weeks of wandering about the forest, keeping an ear out for the horsemen, when Alex and Mae stumbled upon a sight they thought they'd never see. A collection of huts were buried deep within the forest, their timber walls almost camouflaged by the trees surrounding them. Men sharpened tools with rocks and women sat in groups weaving. Children ran about the dirt giggling. A village. Werewolves.

       'We've done it, Mae,' said Alex breathlessly. The werewolves of the village had seen them, now standing to alert.

       Tears had sprung to Mae's eyes, which had taken on the childlike wonder he hadn't seen in years. 'We found the silver lining.'