Orphaned wolf

The results

Dia woke up around 6. I had been up for two hours by that time.

We snuck out of bed and down the stairs. We hadn’t gone far before we saw the first students. They looked at us with hate in their eyes. Today we were all enemies, and after the dean’s proclamation, I didn’t blame them for thinking so.

We walked down the next flight of stairs, the crowd growing. People were gathering around the big board that displayed the results of our tests.

“They are up already?” Dia asked with a voice trembling with fear.

“Apparently.” That was all I could say. I squeezed in between two students, my shoulder aching from yesterday's run. I didn’t want to think about why it was hurting.

I looked for my name. I ran my fingers down the list of names. For a second I was too stunned to speak. I was number 10 out of the 157 people who had taken the tests.

“What number did you get?” I asked Dia. My voice cracked a little bit. I had expected to do well, but not that well. Dia didn’t answer, so I asked again, but she still didn’t say anything.

“Dia?” I looked at her. She was pale as a sheet and her face was laid bare from any emotions. I ran my finger down the board. The temperature dropped for every number I had to skip. 37, 38, 39, I didn’t see Dias name. 62, 63, 64, I didn’t see her name. 89, 90, 91, I didn’t see her name.

But there it was. 115. Dia Callaghan.

“Dia! You said the tests had been going alright!” Dia looked at me and a spark of anger welled up in her.

“I lied. People do that sometimes, Kaya. You can’t protect me from this!” I didn’t know what to do. I would take her place if I could, but this wasn’t anything I could fix.

I saw Esther and Jamal in the crowd. Both smiling, but I didn’t want to know how well they had done, didn’t want to think about how they had made it, when Dia hadn’t.

“We will cross the finish line together,” I repeated. Dia shook her head.

“No, we won’t! We shouldn’t! You have to run. Run as fast as you can.” I grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

“I’m not letting go of you before we have both run past that finish line.” This made Dia laugh, and at that moment, I really believed that we could do it. That we could actually win the race.

I held my promise to Dia during breakfast. Especially when the doors swung open, and a horde of pack wolves rushed into the dining hall. They all sat down at long wooden tables overlooking us. I nailed my gaze to the table. I didn’t even look up when the dean began to speak of the promise she saw in all of us. All lies.

We ate in silence. Dia was hardly touching her food, Esther was utterly quiet, which was so unlike her, and Jamal didn’t try to come up with a clever solution one time.

When it became time to head down to the race, I could feel my body tense. The packs left the hall first. I didn’t look at any of them. All I could think about was the race.

We followed collectively. I ended up walking besides Lydia, but she didn’t fling any insults at us. I had never experienced so gruesomely solemn a Selection. Around us, the younger wolves didn’t jump around screaming encouraging words. Even they understood that something was not as it had been before. Never would such a large portion of the students be left without a pack. My stomach twisted, threatening to relieve me of my breakfast.

We made it to the court in front of the orphanage. A track had been made. Two large grandstands were placed on either side of the finish line. A lane ran all the way through the forest. It was divided into 5, separating us into smaller divisions. Along the running track, obstacles had been placed to make the track more difficult.

The members of the packs began to take their seats in the grandstand. They looked at us like we were sheep at an auction. I searched the faces of the wolves, but I couldn’t see the wolf from yesterday. I doubted that I would even be able to recognise him in his human form.

“As you all know, the rules are simple. Get from the starting line to the finish line the fastest. It is forbidden to change. If a change does accrue during the race, you will be disqualified immediately.” The dean divided us into five smaller groups, and we took our places.

I held on to Dia’s hand. Esther and Jamal laid a hand on her shoulder as well. Their sympathetic glances in her direction didn’t do much to help her, but I knew that they would do everything they could to get her across that finish line. This was not about me anymore.

I could feel my blood rushing in my ears like a sea. Adrenalin was pumping through me, and a part of me was deadly afraid of failing. It made my legs tremble, but I forced them to be still.

The air around us was quite as death. Not even the birds were singing. I could feel Dia breathing beside me, and I squeezed her hand tighter.

From our position at the starting line, the finish line was no more than three kilometres away. I kept telling myself that we wouldn’t have to run for long. It would be over soon. Dia and I would have crossed the finish line very soon.

“Ready, set.” The referee was counting down. He was holding a pistol in one hand, pointing it towards the sky.

Then he fired it.

Masses of bodies threw themselves forward. I felt someone knocking into me, and another pushing me down. Everything became a blur of colourful clothes all mashed together. But I wouldn’t be pushed down like that.

I forced my way through a couple of wolves. They kicked and snarled, but I didn’t care. Didn’t care that we had once laughed together and shared stories of our lives. I didn’t care that our victory meant their defeat.

I hauled Dia along with me. For a moment, we ran beside each other. Our chests rising and falling in the same rhythm. It was almost possible to forget that we weren’t running for our lives.

We zigzagged in and out between the narrow tree poles they had put up. I had to let go of Dia's hand, but she ran right behind me. I could feel her breath on my skin. My body swung in and out of the poles. Beside us, people were running too hard, they crashed into the poles stopping them dead in their tracks.

Dia stepped where I stepped, and we cleared the first obstacle and I noticed how we were in the lead.

I didn’t allow my body or Dia’s body to feel the exhaustion. We just had to move forward.

The next obstacle consisted of a long row of tree stumps. We had to jump from stump to stump to make it across a moat of slimy mud.

I stopped for a second to plan the route, at which time flocks of wolves surpassed us.

“Damn it!” I took a deep breath and hoped that my route would be possible. I took the first jump, and then the next. Dia jumped after me, going where I went. The distance between the stumps was getting bigger, and I had to jump farther and farther now.

Beside me, a girl attempted a long jump that would have secured her a win, but she missed her mark. She hit the tree stump with her entire body, knocking the air out of her lungs.

“Help!” She screamed, looking at me. She was only a couple of feet away from me. I could reach out, could help her. I looked back at Dia, who stared at me.

“I’m sorry,” I said when I took yet another jump, pulling me away from the falling girl. I heard her body hit the mud, and her scream of agony when she realised she had to walk through layers of mud to get to the other side. It would slow her down significantly.

I took another jump, and then another, and then I felt solid ground under my feet. Dia landed beside me, and we sprinted towards the third and last obstacle. To my right, I could see Jamal. He was smiling, and I was grateful to see him. We were among the top 30 wolves. It was better than we could have hoped for, and I was happy to know that Jamal had made it here as well.

The last obstacle was a giant seesaw. We had to run across it and keep our balance. Underneath the seesaw was another muddy moat.

“Go,” I said and pushed Dia forward, “when you cross it, you run, okay?” Dia nodded. I guarded the seesaw, making sure no one pushed it when she tried to cross it. It cost me a lot since many wolves made it a cross while I was waiting, but it was worth it.

Jamal sent me a weird look before crossing the seesaw beside me. When Dia had made it across safely, I jumped on. It wobbled underneath me, but I kept my balance. I put one foot in front of the other, bringing me closer to the finish line.

I made it across, and then I ran. I ran as fast as I could. Forcing my body to work hard one last time.

My eyes didn’t leave the back of Dia's body. I saw how she ran amongst the other wolves. All around her, wolves were surpassing her. She wasn’t running fast enough.

“Come… on!” I prayed for her to get just a little bit more strength. Enough to carry her to the end.

I heard the canons going off for the first wolf that crossed the line in our track. Minutes later, another canon announced that a wolf had passed through the track beside us. Cheers erupted all around us. I couldn’t help but note how many wolves from our track that crossed the finish line before Dia. Around 40 wolves were crossing the line. Dia needed this. She needed to cross the line fast.

I was 10 meters behind her when it happened.

Jamal changed course. His body torpedoed through the air like a tank. He collided with Dia, pushing her into the crowd of wolves on the other side of her. She lost her footing and slammed to the ground, dragging the other wolves with her. Jamal jumped over them and ran across the line. Cheers and applause rained over him.

“No!” I screamed as I reached Dia. She was entangled with the other wolves, and it was hard to see where she ended, and the others began. I reached for her, pulling her up.

“Go!” I yelled at her. She was sniffling now.

“Kaya, it doesn’t matter anymore. I am so far behind.”

“No, go!” I didn’t want to listen. I just pulled her alongside me. She stumbled, barely able to keep up, but I didn’t care. I rushed past hopeful wolves. They still thought they had a chance of getting picked, even though 54 wolves had already made it across.

I tossed Dia in front of me, making sure she passed the line before me. She rolled to the ground, tears staining her cheeks. But I didn’t go to her.

“Well done,” the dean said to me as I passed her. It was all I could do not to push her, making her fall on her ass. My body was drained, but anger refuelled it. Jamal was talking to someone a few meters away. He backed away when he saw me coming.

I had never been so angry. The betrayal had been the last straw. My wolf trashed around inside me, begging to be let lose. And I wasn’t about to deny her.

“Kaya, I am sorry, but there were… we were behind! We couldn’t make it both of us… I made a choice. You would have done the same if you were in my shoes!” Jamal was rambling, and he held up his hands in defence.

“Never! She was your friend!” It wasn’t my voice. It sounded estranged to me. The rage that laced every word made chills run down my spine. Jamal became pale as a sheet. Fear like I had never seen it emanated from him. People around him stepped back. They didn’t want to get in between what was about to happen.

“Don’t do this. You will get disqualified.” A last attempt to prevent me from tearing him apart. But he forgot; I had nothing to lose now. Because of him!

I felt my wolf reach the surface even before I sprang towards him. I felt my body writher and change, and before my human body hit the ground, my wolf broke free.

I was going to kill him!