I walked out of the dense undergrowth in which the rest were laying low, waiting, watching. My heart thundered in my chest and I swallowed my tongue so hard that I couldn't breath; or something like that.

I swallowed a lump in my throat, squeezing my sweaty palms for a heartbeat and then letting out a deep breath. Walking straight up to the enemy? Great idea! Brilliant!

Making sure I had my sleeves pulled up to my fingers, and lowering be blade so that I could easily access it for later in my plan, I shook my arms out and felt triumph when it was unnoticeable.

The last fifteen minutes were spent making sure that I went through the plan smoothly. It would be successful should I manage to get the cuffs on my wrists without a problem, and then somehow keep them talking long enough for them to dull around me.

I stepped on a twig purposefully, alerting the area of my presence. Almost immediately, the guards had their guns pointed in my direction, as though by habit.

I walked straight out of the undergrowth, hands in the air. "Wait! Don't shoot!" I pleaded, widening my eyes and feigning fear and shock. Well, the shock was fake, anyway, I can't promise the same thing for fear. "Please! I'm not any harm!"

One of the guards lowered her guns hesitantly and glanced at the others. When none did the same, she brought it back up to me again and stared down at me with hard eyes. "State your name! Now!"

My heart pounded. "McKenzie," I said loudly, my voice echoing around the area. There was no way anybody within two miles wouldn't be able to hear me speak. "McKenzie Shane."

"Shane?" Instantly, the guard below the woman who demanded my name lowered his gun and stomped forward, looking me down. His jaw was clenched and the shade from the black hat on his head darkened his eyes. "You mean—"

"Yes, I mean the one you've been looking for." I met his gaze, trying to show him I wasn't as intimidated as he seemed to be trying to look.

"How did you know about that?" he questioned, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

I held my wrists out to him, making myself seem lazy and bored. "I know because I have done some research of my own."

He reached behind him, only one hand on his gun, and pulled out a pair of silver cuffs. "Who are your sources?" He asked, strapping the gun over his shoulder so he could cuff me.

I shrugged. "I can't reveal them, that would betray our deal."

"What the fuck is she talking about, Rogers?" The woman barked down, her eyebrows furrowed with frustration.

Rogers ignored her and stared me in the eyes, the cuffs sliding around my wrists like the cold hands of death grabbing me to take me to the land of lost souls. "No idea," he murmured under his breath. "Any chance you're going to change your reveal them?"

"Nah," I said, shrugging and tugging the cuffs and adding, "Think you made them too loose."

After he adjusted the cuffs, I let out an optimistic sigh and looked around. "Neat place, to bad it's a torture chamber."

"It's not," he replied dryly.

"No?" I blinked, acting surprised. "I don't know, it felt like torture going through the change. Never saw it coming, you know?"

Rogers eyed me, his gaze cautious. "We aren't the bad guys, here," he told me tightly. "We're trying to make you stronger, better."

"That is," I added, making sure to speak quickly enough so he couldn't continue, "if we survive, and we don't rip your throats out."

"I highly doubt you're in any place to hand out threats," the woman snapped, her gun pointing directly at my forehead as she gritted her teeth. "You turned yourself in, remember?"

I was starting to like my uncanny ability to piss people off quickly. "Not to be rude," I called up, "but I wasn't talking to you."

"No? Well we can all hear you."

"Ah, yes, well, what does that matter? Nobody's around to hear me. That was the point of putting this building here, right?" As I spoke, my voice lowered and my eyes locked with hers. "So nobody will hear you?"

"Excuse me?"

Rogers steps in front of me, attempting to put a fire out before it even started, but I simply stepped around him.

"Don't play stupid," I chided her, lifting my arms and pretending to have been waving her off. The knife started sliding down, and I caught the blade between my brushing hands. "If it's as painful to everyone else as it is to me, screaming will happen."

"We don't touch them, if that's what you're implying," she spat, growing close to done with me. I had to stop dilly-dallying and start stabbing some people, or the plan, and the raid, would be ruined.

"Not at all." I smiled at her, stepping back next to the guard named Rogers. I started lifting my cuffed hands again.

The woman's eyes flashed, a wave of confusion and sudden alarm crossing her face. She lifted her head away from her gun, and just when realization clicked in her brain somewhere, I jerked my hands back and shot them forward again, to the side, and going through Rogers' skin like a nail slicing a scab off a healing wound.

Rogers stared at me blankly as I felt warm liquid spill out across my hands. I pulled the knife out just as I heard the gun going off.

"Now!" Silo roared, and seconds later people and animals alike darted out of the bushes and began to make their way to the guards. I saw Silo change mid-run, and it was a beautiful process.

His skin began to peel away from his body, golden brown fur taking its place, his nose expanding and whiskers growing. His body lengthened, and his feet turned to his paws, his clothes shredded off of his body, along with his gun, and it landed to the ground with a thud. He was replaced by a large, beautiful leopard striding across the ground and making its way up the stairs, where two guards were ready to meet him, shooting towards him.

The leopard leaped and dug his claws into the man's throat. Blood spurted through the deep insertion of the man's throat, all the while sending him down the railing before turning to the other, his lips peeled back and his fur on end along his spine. He sent his claws across the guard's face, before leaping on top of his chest and jerking him to the ground. I saw his head lower and clamp around the man's throat. I looked away, but I heard the crunch of the throat between his strong jaws, and the dying scream of the man just before it faded away along with his life.

A chill ran down my spine as I looked at my feet, then down at the guard I had stabbed. He hadn't died, I don't think, but my intention wasn't to kill him anyways.

"Mckenzie! Get your ass in there and lead them away!" I saw Giselle in front of me, but she was a blurred figure. "They're going to go after you!"

"He killed those people," I said, staring at her, my shoulders trembling.

Giselle's eyes pierced mine as she grabbed the cuffs and jerked them apart, destroying them and freeing my wrists. "They're bad people you idiot!" She snarled, throwing the two broken cuffs to the side like trash. "They kill us every day by experimenting on us!"

"I know—"

"Then stop worrying about them and worry about yourself, because honey, if you're as important to them as our sources say, you need to run now." Giselle jerked her thumb to the woods and narrowed her eyes. "Better get going, I see a troop headed our way, and they're not going to let anyone in theirs."

Without a word, I called on Shark. She was prepared, having been silently watching and waiting for me to do so. I shifted and began to run in the direction in which was in front of me, my paws landing on the ground heavily. I felt the force of my body get heavily impacted by the surrounding forest, twigs scratching through my fur and slicing the skin if it was to close and to sharp.

Behind me, I focused on what noises were going on. I knew there were people after me, based on the sounds of a roaring car, and the snaps of foliage as it crushed the flora beneath its large wheels.

I turned my body, forcing my paws to dig deeply into the thick undergrowth so I could make a sharp turn to the left, to which my direction would change. If they caught on quick enough to realize I wasn't leading them the same direction anymore, then they, too, would have to make a sharp turn. I don't know how prepared their car would be for that.

I leaped in the air to avoid tripping over a fallen tree, glancing behind me. So far, I was getting ahead of them and they were out of my line of sight.

I listened to the car's roar, the swerve of the tires against the forest ground, and knew instantly that they had realized I had changed direction. This urged me to run faster, working my already screaming muscles to full capacity. Everything that passed me as I ran was a big blur, and my paws had grown numb moments ago from the amount of thudding against the harsh ground. My heart was going to give out if I was going to keep at this speed for the rest of this stupid raid.

Fifteen minutes is what I would give them. Fifteen minutes is my hopeful guess to how long I could continue this speed. Of how long I could zig-zag these idiots behind me in different directions before they caught up or slowed me down somehow.

Fifteen minutes.

-:-

"She's led most of them away," Silo announced to the rest of the raid that weren't leading most of the guards away. The alarm had gone off and alerted probably every single other Facility in the country, but they wouldn't be able to send enough reinforcements in time for them to catch the intruders. Most of them had been ordered immediately to go after McKenzie, and as such they did.

The rest of the guards staying behind were dead or simply unconscious, based on who was the one handling them.

Silo pulled on jeans after shifting back, and was walking through the mostly silent halls, except for the clanking of metal as some of the raiders opened the holding cells to release the trapped experiments. Where were these Elites, the ones he had told McKenzie about only hours before? Had it possibly been, by chance, that they were sent out before the Raid arrived, and were looking for their camp of escapees?  Or is there a possibility that ...

"Giselle!" His barking command echoed through the halls, his arms prickling with goosebumps from how eery and cold the area was. She didn't keep him waiting long.

"Yes?" Her eyes met his as she rushed up, lifting her chin bravely and staring at him.

"I need you to get some sort of track on the Elites. They aren't here, and I don't like that. That means that they're either sneaking up on our distractions, or they're looking for our camp," he said, continuing to walk and expecting her to follow. Giselle was never a disappointment, which was proven many times over and now once again as she walked after him until getting up to his pace.

"Are you sure we'll find out who McKenzie is on these computers?" Giselle asked, and it took Silo a few moments to intake her words. He paused before answering, and she knew he was hesitating with speaking. "Sir?"

Sir. Giselle rarely, very rarely, used terms like sir with him. She didn't act much like his second in command, but more like a close friend. He didn't look down on her, which encouraged the bonding relationship the two share that makes their leaderships work very well together. They didn't have to use formalities with one another unless addressing the Council, and they most certainly didn't fight or argue as long as the situation they were both in was intense.

If Giselle was using formality now, she must be demanding an answer in the most respectful of ways. Silo ran a hand over his face, his skin scratching the prickles of hair that made his beard. "I know there's something, and that gives me enough desire to find out what. Doesn't it make you wonder why our sources were knowledgable on this girl before we were? They're our spies, they see and hear everything out on the streets."

Giselle sniffed. "Yes, but they don't exactly take very good care of themselves. Harley always comes to us smelling like hard liquor, and you know he suffers hangovers. He gets drunk off his ass with the money we give him in exchange for his informational uses." She scowled slightly. Silo clenched his jaw to keep himself from pointing out that she was only targeting Harley out of bitterness for his alcoholism.

"Giselle," he warned.

"I'm just saying," she added quickly, sensing his careful warning, "that maybe we should take into consideration that he might be mixing up his facts and not always providing the best accuracy as possible."

The two turned the corner and walked through the empty halls, Silo's senses still in high alert. This wing hadn't been penetrated yet, as far as Silo could see, and whatever might happen he had to be prepared for an ambush. "Harley isn't our only source, but he's our most stable."

"Stable?" His Tánaiste spat out. Silo could practically see the disgusted expression burning through the back of his head. "You're joking, right?"

"No, I'm not," he stated, walking faster. He wasn't sure how long they had on this raid, so the faster he went the better. "He's survived the longest and has been the only one not captured by the Elites."

"So that makes him the most reliable?"

"At this point, yes," he snapped, a low growl rising in his throat. He had to push down the gnawing feeling of predatory irritation, swallowing a rock of anger. "I don't want to discuss this, now, Giselle. Even if he is wrong, it's not going to hurt us to look."

"It is if our people — loyal and true — are dying out there over false possibilities!" Giselle protested, her voice rising to a higher pitch, a sign that her anxiety and worry over their comrades surfacing. He'd always admired Giselle for the silent concern she had for them, but right now he couldn't find the second to feel touched and honored that she was his Second. Later would be the time, and later he would remind her why he chose her to be at his side.

"Giselle." Silo whipped around and grabbed her by the throat. He hated having to show his dominance, especially at his closest friend, but she was stepping out of line and he had to her back her behind it before she crossed it to far. "I'm going to need you to rein yourself back and calm down."

He felt her swallow under his grip, and he could also feel her pulse. She slowly began calming, relaxing in his grip. He gently unwrapped her fingers from her neck and nodded. "Good girl."

Giselle flashed him the finger, and he grinned slightly. "Let's go," she said, nodding and they began walking again.

He pushed open the doors to one of the offices and was pleased to find the computer was still logged on.

"Let's find out who you are, McKenzie," Giselle murmured as she leaned over the computer with Silo.