eight" said Star calmly.

"But why don't we have him and his group join us?" asked one hundred.

"Because we can't trust them and we also can't have them help us because then what we're doing will be too obvious.  But that's only the first part of our plan.  The second part is...."

Back to the present:

"Yes!!  I finally did it!!" shouted an ecstatic Janx as he stood proudly in the arena.  He was so happy to have won after all this time and he couldn't help but get overly-happy at the thought of seeing his mate Amber again.

Soon after the battle the humans came marching in the room carrying stretchers to carry the wolves and guns just in case they would need them.

A small  group of the humans walked up to and surrounded Janx and pointed their guns at him gesturing for him to follow them and not try anything funny.  As Janx was departing the arena he took one last look back at the wolves he was leaving behind.

Ten minutes after Janx was gone and was safely leaving the building the rest of the humans began to start the process of bringing the wolves back into the holding room.  It seemed way too easy for them because the wolves looked like they had fought so hard that there would be no trouble.

However after only a minute a voice came across the radio that was screaming.

The Previous night:

"The second part is that we will only fight each other and we'll have to make it look like we're going all-out but we can't waste any real energy and we shouldn't try to hurt each other much 'cause that's the key.  When the fight is over and the humans come to get us we'll be playing dead and we'll be ready for them" said Star.

Back to the present:

"Hey...Wait...Aaaaagh!!  Sir! Some of the wolves are getting up and are attacking u..." were the last words before the transmission ended

Chapter twelve:  House of wolves

Star and thirty four along with their allies had begun their counter attack starting with the humans who were picking them up for transport back to the other room but they were just the beginning.  After viciously killing all the humans near them they turned their attention to the rest of the humans in the room who were either running for their lives or aiming guns at them.

But the humans were too late because by the time they were ready to fire the wolves had pinned them to the ground and were ripping their throats out and biting them to death. 

In less than ten minutes all the humans in the room were dead and four wolves that were part of the alliance had died in the process.

In one of the other rooms

The few remaining humans in the complex that didn't carry guns had all agreed to meet in a small control room to discuss how they would handle the current situation but they knew it would only be a matter of time before the wolves got to them unless they took action now.

"So what should we do?" asked one of the humans.   While he was trying to talk to the people who had entered with him the person who was actually in charge of the control room had also heard him so he decided to answer.

"We can't let them escape obviously so here's what we're going to do.  First we'll turn out all the lights in the room so they can't see anything and once they're out we'll close the exits and trap them there." said the human as he walked up to one of the controls and pressed a few buttons on the computer and watched the cameras to see what would happen next.

Back in the arena

With all the humans dead the rest of the remaining wolves took a brief moment to gather and decide what they would do next.  Escape was the primary goal but they were still unsure of what they would do from this point to achieve that goal.

"So, seventy seven what do we do now?" asked number six who had only just stopped his brutal assault and made his way back to the group who was also looking to Star and thirty four for guidance.

"There's no turning back now and if we don't leave soon more humans will come and who knows how many more of us will die.  We've already lost forty two, seventy nine, sixty seven, and fifteen and they were among the strongest of us." announced a very tired and confused thirty three. 

His comment was much anticipated by number one hundred who had always questioned Star's leadership and was more than happy at the opportunity to be able to demand answers from somebody that he was afraid to blindly follow.  "Instead of bickering like a bunch of dumb a***s why don't we leave for the exi..." number one hundred was cut off when all of a sudden the lights started to turn off all round them one by one until the darkness had once again swallowed them up.

The chatting in the group had increased even more with this unexpected occurrence and not even Star and thirty four were able to get back control of the situation.  However when a loud clank and bang filled the lightless room everybody immediately shut up for they knew they needed to leave the room now.

As the alliance blindly pushed through the darkness and over the bodies of both wolves and humans they tried to rack their brains and remember where the humans had entered from.  Star had almost left the room with thirty four and just as he was in front of one of the exits he bumped into a body on the ground. 

The body was of a wolf but this one was unfamiliar to Star as he was not allied with Star or Janx.  The wolf was badly injured but it wasn't dead yet and that was a good enough reason for Star to try and save him.  Star began to drag the wolf to the exit in front of him but was stopped by thirty four who was blocking his entrance.

"What's that?" asked thirty four to Star.  thirty four was unmoving from his position and was making no effort to help Star let alone pretend to care about the injured wolf.

Another loud band echoed throughout the room and both Star and thirty four knew the second exit had closed and the third would close in only a few more seconds. 

"We gotta  get this guy out of here." pleaded Star, but thirty four would hear nothing of it.

"No, if we bring him them none of us will make it.  We need to leave him behind along with all the other non-allies.  I know it's sad but we can worry about them later.  Our top priority is getting out and everybody else has left so come on."  After finishing his sentence thirty four rushed towards Star and grabbed him with his jaws and forcibly dragged him out through the exit only seconds before it closed too.

Somewhere in the woods, about a kilometer from the building

Janx and the convoy of humans that were traveling with him had left the jeep they had traveled in and walked up to a small clearing that was littered with bones.  The humans hadn't taken one eye off him since they got out of the car and now they were gathering in a semi-circle in front of him and took out their guns and pointed them at him.

It didn't take long for Janx to realize what was about to happen and what all the bones were from and what really happened to the winners.

The humans pointed their guns at Janx,  took aim, put their fingers in the triggers and prepared to fire.

Chapter thirteen: Don't look back

When all the exits had finally shut thirty four let go of Star who quickly jumped up on his feet(paws) and lowered himself into an offensive posture and bared his fangs at thirty four.  "What the h**l did you think you were doing?!  You better have a good reason for this!" growled an incredibly pissed-off Star.

Sensing that Star might try to fight him thirty four took some time to think about what he was going to say and how he would calm Star down.  "I did what I had to do.  Even if I had helped you we would never have gotten back in time and you're too important to us to just leave in there."

"Don't you even care that we left an innocent wolf in there to die?"

"I'm not going to throw my life away for somebody who has probably tried to kill me any number of times; so I apologize if I'm not exactly enthusiastic about helping somebody that wouldn't care if I was dead or alive. said thirty four in an incredibly sarcastic manner.  Besides, we can always come back here to look for other survivors if we don't get killed ourselves"

Star was beginning to worry about thirty four.  After all this time he had always been helpful and understanding so this recent change in thirty four's behavior was something of a shock to Star.  Star thought thirty four was just anxious about escaping but there just wasn't any time to talk to thirty four now. 

But thirty four was right about one thing.  They didn't have any time to waste and as sad as it made Star, he couldn't rescue everyone and there would be fellow wolves he would be leaving behind.  Star thought about going back to the wolves.  Taking a look back at what he was leaving behind; but doing so would only make him weaker.  And Star would have to be strong because the worst wasn't over yet.  With a newfound resolve Star left with thirty four to join with the rest of the alliance and resolved to leave this h**l hole forever.

But the remaining humans were just as determined to not let a single wolf leave alive.  Back in the control room the humans were furious that the wolves had escaped and were coming their way.  To all of them it was obvious that this was the end of their operation and no matter what they did now the wolf fighting was over. 

There was much discussion about what they should do, and after some brief debate a verdict was made.  They would cut their losses and leave the building behind because it was never going to be used by them or anyone else