赤裸裸的滑稽故事

Caleb and Ashleigh made better time than he had anticipated. They were still five miles from Winter, but he wanted to check the communications tower first.

This was part of the treaty shared between the packs; Summer maintained communications and electricity, regardless of war or strife between the packs.

As they approached, Caleb already knew from the smell in the air what they would find inside the tower.

“Is that…” Ashleigh's words died on her lips as Caleb pushed open the door, and the answer covered the floor in front of them.

Caleb sighed as he pulled out his phone and called to order a repair of the tower and recovery of the bodies.

Beyond the two men lying dead on the ground, their blood pooling beneath them, Caleb could see that the hardware had been damaged. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be a quick fix to get communications back up and running in Winter.

He had barely hung up the phone when it suddenly rang in his hand. He sighed and told Ashleigh to give him a minute.

“Alice, I–” Caleb began.

“This is not ‘letting me know what you find out,' Caleb!” Alice shouted. “I have been calling for almost two hours!”

“I was on the road,” Caleb sighed. “Listen, we just got to the communications tower for Winter. It's been sabotaged, and my techs murdered. So Ashleigh and I are headed to Winter now.”

“Sabotaged? How?”

“Brute force,” Caleb replied.

“Then it wasn't Holden,” Alice sighed.

“What?”

“Attacking the communications tower is something Holden has mentioned before, but he doesn't like brute force methods. They are too easily discovered,” she replied. “Which means this is Roman.”

Caleb clenched his jaw.

“It could be rogues,” he said.

“No, it can't,” she replied. “I'm with the rogues.”

“What? I thought you were just sent to observe them?”

“We don't have time Caleb,” she continued. “It's Roman. He must be going after Bell.”

“Except Roman can't enter Winter.”

“He doesn't need to if he sends a force in after her.”

Caleb suddenly thought of the pockets along the fence that had no power. Roman could be planning to take Bell at one of those positions.

“I gotta go, Alice.”

Alice was silent, but he could hear her sharp breaths. Trying to calm herself.

“I want to hear from Axel tonight,” she said.

“Communications aren't going to be fixed right away. We don't know what is happening in Winter. I might not be able to–”

“Tonight!” Alice shouted. “You will find a way for Axel to call me, to let me hear his voice tonight. Or I swear to your Goddess, Caleb. I will tear down the walls of Summer!”

Caleb took a deep breath. The Alpha in him wanted to demand that she show him respect. But he knew she was just scared.

“I will do my best, Alice… for now, I need to go.”

After hanging up, Caleb called the team, which was already on its way. He updated them on the situation, telling them to hurry and reminding them that Bell was Galen's wife and was pregnant with his child.

Caleb returned to Ashleigh. Without a word, he knew that she wanted to tell him not to trust in Alice too much, but she held back.

He grabbed a stick lying on the ground and drew a rough border map.

“From what I remember, there were three points along the eastern border without power and two along the western border. Those are here and here.”

“So, you take west, and I'll take east,” Ashleigh said. “One of us is bound to find them.”

“We could do that,” he said. “But I think it might be better if you go straight in and avoid the fight altogether.”

“What? Why?”

“Hear me out,” Caleb said. “If you go straight from the southern border, you can tell the patrol what's happening. Yea, communications are down, but they can still get troops on the way.”

“I can do that at any of the entry points along the east,” she argued.

“I know, but if you enter the south and go straight to the center, you might be able to warn Bell first.”

Ashleigh's eyes widened.

“They're after Bell?”

Caleb nodded.

“Alice thinks it might be Roman.”

“Oh, Goddess…”

“We're going to stop them,” Caleb said, touching his hand to her shoulder.

She nodded.

“You'll go south?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Ok, I'll go east. Let's go.”

***

When Ashleigh reached the southern border entrance, there were no patrolmen, no guards. The security system was active, but no one was at their post. She was suddenly thrilled that Caleb had insisted that even though she was now a member of Summer, her scan be included in the permissions for the system.

She found two of the patrolmen out cold. The others were missing. She discovered their walkie-talkies, but they were already smashed to pieces. After waking them, she told them what was happening and sent them to inform everyone they could while she made her way home.

As she made her way north, she heard alarms. But it wasn't what she expected. These weren't the security alarms that warned of an attack. Instead, these were used to indicate fires or dangerous weather conditions.

The kind of things that would force children, the elderly, and pregnant women into one place.

Ashleigh pushed herself to run even faster across the snow-covered land.

“Bell!” Ashleigh shouted as she pushed open the doors of the community center.

All around, women and children stared back at her in confusion.

“Ashleigh?” called a soft voice.

Ashleigh turned to face a young woman she recognized from the hospital. One of the nurses that worked with Bell.

“Have you seen Bell?” Ashleigh asked.

“Uh, she was just here. But one of the scouts came. They said that she was needed by Alpha Axel.”

“By Axel? Where?”

“I'm not sure,” she said, then added. “It was strange, though. When I made my way here, I saw Alpha Axel and Galen heading toward the fires in the east. But it looked like the scout was leading her toward the west.”

“Thank you!” Ashleigh shouted as she ran back out the door.

She looked toward the west, the entrance to the forest. Oddly enough, the last time she had gone searching for Bell was along the western border.

Unsurprisingly, it was also the point at which the edge of the mountain served as part of the border. It was identified early as one of the weak points that the security system could not monitor.

Because of that, a team of scouts was permanently assigned to that section.

Ashleigh remembered seeing the team that was newly assigned to that post. She remembered because she wished Penny luck with her new assignment.