Give Me Strength 》 Teen Wolf

10 - Freak Out

        Chris drops a duffel bag on the ground by his feet. He lowers himself to the ground in a crouching position, a few feet in front of Scott, who is also crouched down. "You're tracking them by print?

        "Trying to." Scott replies.

        "Well, then, you've been wasting your time. There's only one creature on earth that can visually track footprints, and that's man." Chris pushes himself back up. "And, if you're not trained like me, you have no idea that this print is Boyd's..." He points to a set of larger footprints. "And these-"

        "- Are Cora's." Isaac points to the set of prints.

        "Nope." Chris deadpans. "They're yours. You trampled Cora's as soon as you walked over here. Listen, I know the four of you are focusing half of your energy on resisting your own urges under the full moon, but that puts you at a severe disadvantage to Boyd and Cora, who have fully given in. They put the pedal to the floor where you four are barely hitting the speed limit."

        I half raise my hand in the air. "Actulally, the full moon doesn't really affect me as badly."

        Derek looks around until his eyes land on Chris. "So, what do we do?"

      "Focus on your sense of smell. Actual wolves are known to track their prey by up to a hundred Miles a day by scent. A trained hunter can use scent to track them. If the wind is with them, wolves can track a scent by a distance of two Miles, which means we can draw them to us... Or into a trap." Chris tosses a net to Scott, who finally stood up. "Full moon does give us one advantage. They'll have a higher heat signature, which makes them easier to spot with infrared." He tosses infrared glasses to Isaac and Derek.

        Derek messes with the glasses in his hand. "Thanks, but I've got my own." Derek switches his eyes to red. "You'll need these." He hands them over to me.

        "My senses are more heightened since I'm a hybrid. I don't need those either." I shake my head. 

        "Just remember, we're not hunting wild animals. Underneath those impulses are two intelligent human beings. Don't think they can't rely on that human side. It's suppressed, but it's there, reminding them how to mask their scent, how to cover their tracks, how to survive."

        The five of us walk towards the edge of the cliff that shows the entire town of Beacon Hills below us. Isaac glances over at me with his infrafred goggles in hand. Whatever Chris has planned, it has to work. We can't let them die. 

        "When's the last time you saw your sister?" He asks Derek.

        "Nine years. I thought she died in the fire."

        "Do you feel like you have a lock on her scent?" Chris frowns when Derek shakes his head. "Scott, how confident are you in your skills?"

        "Honestly, most of the time, I'm trying not to think of all the things I can smell." Scott says, and I feel our hope fall dramactically. 

        Chris turns to face the four of us. "All right. The problem is when they breach the woods and hit the residential area. Once they're past the high school, they're right in the middle of the beacon hills."

        Isaac and I lock eyes and I know we are wondering the same thing. "They're not gonna kill everything they see, are they?"

        "No. But there is an important difference to recognize. Wolves hunt for food. At a certain point, they get full. But Boyd and Cora are hunting for the pleasure of the kill, for some primal apex predatory satisfaction that comes from the ripping of warm bodies to bloody shreds. And who knows when that need gets satiated?"