Control over the beast, mastery over oneself, those were irreplaceable virtues. No matter how much violence we inflicted or how many losses we suffered, we had to maintain our own selves. If we became like Grandpa, the war would be truly lost.
The pack didn't stay long at the lake, but instead we followed the road to the settlement of Lakeland. It was early evening and heavily overcast, and our shadows from the lights of the nearest ranch were long upon the snow.
"Treach and I will approach. We're going to steal that truck." Lieutenant Colonel Rose decided. We waited while they got near, hoping there were no dogs to alert the owner of our presence. The door to the truck was unlocked and Treach was able to hotwire it. They drove off as the rancher came outside with a revolver and fired at his own truck.
At the edge of the long driveway the rest of the pack piled into the back and the attached horse trailer. We drove through the town and along the highway. It was over a hundred miles until we were near our next target, and halfway through the next day. We rode along, putting a lot of distance between us and General Stone's forces, and turned off where Doctor Imbrium directed. Along the forestry road, we abandoned the stolen truck.
"They will be searching for us near Lakeland. This is the perfect opportunity to strike our next target. Where are we, Doctor?" Lieutenant Colonel Rose asked.
"We are back where I first started. I always knew I would return, or hoped I would. Destroying this place will be like cleansing part of my soul. I was part of this when it began. We are at The Farm."
"This won't be easy." McRaze told us. "Most of their subjects went insane."
"She is correct. Removing McRaze and myself to another location was the best thing I could have done. The Farm isn't safe." Doctor Imbrium explained. "The experimentals have psionic powers, and it is all that National Security and the scientists can do to keep them from escaping."
"Let's put an end to this. Give us an idea of the layout of the facility, as you remember it." Lieutenant Colonel Rose told Doctor Imbrium.
They showed us a rough diagram, drawn in the snow with a stick and pointed out where the entrances and exits were, the guard positions, holding cells, stairs, and the command center for the guards. Lieutenant Colonel Rose split us into teams with himself, Doctor Imbrium, Dreich, and McRaze in the lead. I was with Bruna, Adam, Frosty, and Abbot while the rest, including Jack the Ripper, were to hold back and cover the exits, protect our retreat, and act as reinforcements if necessary.
Lieutenant Colonel Rose's team approached the vehicle checkpoint at the outer gate. The guard was within visual range of McRaze and she didn't wait for his reaction. He fell out of the guard shack to the road, pulling at his clothing as his insides boiled. There was smoke coming out of his mouth when we reached him. The first team got to the front entrance and McRaze focused her heat powers on the hinges of the heavy doors. One good kick from the lieutenant colonel broke them down.
He ducked back as a hail of bullets greeted him. McRaze knelt unflinching under the salvo and sent a wave of scorching air from between her fingers to the men inside. When they stopped shooting she stood and focused on them, causing flames to spontaneously combust all over their heads and clothing. Trying to stop drop and roll didn't save them, as they screamed and caught fire. She went in, stepping over their smoldering remains.
When team one was inside we followed. They had gone down a hall towards the holding cells. We arrived in time to deal with the guards who responded to the breach. I used the automatic rifle I'd taken from the Wolf Hunt soldier and emptied the clip, suppressing their contact with us while the rest of my team took up positions behind cover. I ducked and then lay flat as the guards popped out and returned fire. Bruna and Abbot neatly picked them off, except one.
He tried to retreat but Adam had circled around through the entrance lobby and caught him but his gun hand. He squeezed and broke the guard's wrist and then jerked and tore his arm off. The guard fell over in shock and lay there, unsure what had happened. Adam stepped on his head and finished him off.
"Let's go, head down that hall towards the command center." Bruna ordered. "Frosty, take point."
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The yeti advanced ahead of us with his machinegun leveled. Two guards jumped out, their weapons ready, but they were so surprised at the sight of Frosty coming towards them that they hesitated and Frosty shot first, chopping them down in a thunderous burst. The empty shells from the machinegun rained to the hard floors and tinkled.
Frosty came at the command center hot, shooting without aiming and driving the remaining guards behind cover. He kept shooting until the weapon was empty, and then as a guard popped up, Frosty threw the machinegun at him and knocked him off his feet.
We had gotten close to their positions behind cover while Frosty was shooting up the command center. Bruna drove her combat knife into one of them when he jumped out aiming away from her at Frosty. Another was killed from a single punch to his face by Adam. I had two guards left and I was alongside them where they knelt behind a desk of security monitors. I let loose with my remaining clip of ammo and killed both of them and shot apart the monitors as the automatic weapon sprayed bullets.
Just then the whole facility began to shake, as though there was an earthquake happening. Bruna looked alarmed and ordered her team to retreat back outside. We quickly ran back out the way we had come in. Outside we rejoined the rest of the pack, just in time to see scientists and their hospital gown-wearing subjects come running out the exits.
"Hold your fire, they're unarmed." Bruna ordered.
I spotted Lieutenant Colonel Rose, Dreich and Doctor Imbrium exiting the building. Just when they got out the whole structure lurched and collapsed inward as though demolished. The loud crash and the sudden wave under our feet was shocking. Concrete dust drifted up from the destruction.
The pack stood some distance away and the lieutenant colonel's team, minus McRaze, rejoined us. The scientists and subjects stood around and stared at the ruins. I wondered what happened and asked:
"What happened in there?"
"We opened the doors and let them all out, or I mean, McRaze did." Dreich looked back. "She was still in there."
"No look." Jack the Ripper pointed to where McRaze was walking slowly towards us. "She got out."
"What else got out?" I asked.
Then we saw it, hovering over the ruins. It was like some kind of enormous brain with a bit of a face and skull attached and a withered body dangling under it. We stared in horror at the apex experimental. It seemed mostly interested in the other subjects whose thoughts had annoyed it for so long and the scientists that had created it and tormented it.
They tried to run from it and those who fled were its first victims. Some of the subjects tried to fight back with their own psionic abilities but it easily resisted them and killed them anyway. We watched the massacre in horror, unable to help the lesser experimentals or the scientists.
One by one it telekinetically grabbed them all and twisted them like sponges, wringing them into broken, dripping corpses and dropping them. None of them escaped. It used its mental powers to kill them, hovering slowly along as it did. I realized the pack was next.
"Shoot it, shoot it!" I said.
"Open fire!" Lieutenant Colonel Rose ordered. Everyone in the pack who held a gun started shooting at the hovering experimental, but it diverted the bullets around it, somehow contorting the shape of the air around its body.
Only McRaze could face it, but her powers were far lesser than the brain creature. She focused all her remaining psionic energy on it, trying to burn it, but it somehow resisted her, coming closer and closer. Its telekinetic grasp began to lift her from where she stood, and I feared it would crush her like the others. McRaze was the only chance we had against it.
She strained against its mental hold, trying to resist the invisible pressure. While it held her she was still trying to use her pyrokinesis on it. The creature was focused on her and the pack kept shooting at it. It seemed to be struggling to simultaneously attack McRaze and defend itself from the barrage of gunfire.
"Hey, over here! Remember me?" Doctor Imbrium broke free, running towards the floating brain creature. The experimental was powerful, but with bullets curving around it, McRaze trying to burn it, and Doctor Imbrium's sudden reminder of something from its more human past, the experimental's attention was divided. One bullet ripped through its body, and another grazed a piece of its skull that was stuck to the sticky brain.
Doctor Imbrium felt its telekinetic grip as it lifted them, intent on killing the last of the scientists. Just then McRaze broke through its psychic defenses. She and the doctor both fell as the brain ruptured and dropped from the air. It lay on the ground, unmoving. McRaze slowly climbed to one knee and held her hand towards it, channeling her focus through her own arm. The fallen experimental began to blister and pop and then acrid smoke began to seep from it.
"What was that thing?" I asked.
"A product of mad science." Adam decided.
"Progress in the wrong direction, you mean." Jack the Ripper said his opinion.
"That was once a patient of mine. Her name was Gloria Valence." Doctor Imbrium got to their feet and dusted themself off.
McRaze collapsed and Bruna ran to her and helped her up. She had a long gaze and there was blood oozing from her eyes. She coughed and let Bruna help her up, supporting her while she walked.
We found the garage of the compound, one of the outlying buildings that still stood. Lieutenant Colonel Rose ordered us to commandeer vehicles. We drove away, leaving behind the horrors of The Farm.