Finally, we're all through the obstacle course, which included a scaling rock wall with hardly any finger- and toe-holds, a long swim, a barbed-wire tunnel to crawl through, and much more.
There, tied to a tree, is a woman. She's clearly acting, crying out for us to save her, and the monster? Is just another cadet, but one who means business because we can't use lethal force on him, but he's already smashing the butt of his rifle against Diego's temple. With a loud crack, Diego goes down hard.
Wow. Nice. Not that I wanted Diego to get hurt, but this might actually prove a challenge.
Instead of rushing ahead, I watch as the others charge toward the cadet. Eventually, he’s disarmed, but he’s proficient in martial arts, and he’s still taking guys out left and right. Our numbers are dwindling, and that’s when I notice it.
A lupus bear.
A lupus bear isn’t like any old bear. They’re a new kind of bear that only started to appear shortly after the Grots arrived. Scientists think that the bears must have eaten something they shouldn’t have or been exposed to something alien. Why only bears were affected, they couldn’t say, but lupus bears are savage. They’re vicious, and there are towns that hire hunters to slay lupus bears for a high reward just to keep the town safe. I might’ve taken on such a job before. Yes, I had been successful.
Lupus bears aren't just savage, though. They attack without provocation. Patches of their skin are clear as fur doesn't cover every inch of their bodies, and their paws are double the size of a normal bear's. Their claws are strong enough to slice through bone, and they've been known to eat their victims.
This one is at least seven feet tall, and I know we aren’t supposed to kill on this mission, but no one else is paying the lupus bear any mind, and it’s heading straight for the tied up woman. She’s nothing more than a delicious snack waiting for him to devour her, and I won’t have that.
I race over to a nearby boulder and line up my shot. It’s a good thing they allowed us to bring weapons with us even if we aren’t supposed to kill anything. Maybe they knew the lupus bear was in the area. Maybe this is some kind of test.
Even if it’s not a test, I can’t allow her to die because of some rule during a training exercise.
My finger pulls the trigger. The lupus bear roars as the shot hits its flank, and the others around me who aren’t unconscious all gasp and scramble around. It’s total anarchy, but I calmly line up and fire off two more shots in quick succession. One hits the lupus bear in the forehead, the other in its chest. The bear staggers, falls down with a massive thump, and tries to get back up again. I’m ready to shoot again, but it slowly stops moving.
Greg makes his way behind the cadet, puts him in a chokehold, and knocks him out. Others race forward to retrieve the woman, and the plane swings back around. We climb a rope ladder up to the plane and are charted back to the building where we had been given the assignment.
The general congratulates us on a job well done. She goes up to each of us and tells us what we did right and wrong, giving us marks or not. The amount of time she rips into Diego makes me smirk. He has a bruise on his temple, and he seems a bit out of it. The guy doesn’t say a word in his defense.
When she gets to me, though, she scowls. "You did commendable during your jump, and you are a team player. The obstacle course… Yes. You did that well, but the instructions were very plain and clear. You were not—"
“The lupus bear—”
“I don’t care,” the general snaps.
“He would’ve eaten her!”
“She knew the risk when she signed up.”
I gape at her. “Are you serious? No one wants to be eaten—”
“I didn’t say she wanted to be eaten, but if that had happened—”
“And if the lupus bear would’ve gone after us, after the cadet, we should’ve just let that happen?” I cannot believe what I’m hearing.
“That lupus bear broke out of one of our facilities—”
“So, what, you’re experimenting on it? How do we know that the Grots and their tech created them? Maybe they’re a lab experiment gone wrong.” I cross my arms and lift my chin.
“Are you trying to find fault with—”
“I find fault with an organization that is willing to let others die because they couldn’t keep their experiment under lock and key,” I say through gritted teeth. “Why didn’t one of your people send out a group to fetch the monster and bring it back to the lab?”
“We were having the place canvassed—”
"You watched the entire experiment. You knew our every move. You had to realize that the lupus bear was making its way to us." I shake my head. "It was a test, a deadly one. You wanted to see if we were willing to listen to your orders without fail, even if that meant that innocent people would die. That's sick and twisted!"
“I was just going to issue you a warning but still commend you to join the ops. Now, you may go.” She turns her back to me.
I don’t move.
The general whirls back around.
