《Monster Apocalypse》 Chapter One As always, I dozed off at the side, glancing at the windows of the room and time passed impossibly slow. Today, it proved itself to be different from the others. Recent news of the changing of humans spread like wildfire, even now, in class, gossiping ensued as everyone excitedly talked about the changing. Even in our small class, many students sported colored hair, silver, red, dark blue. Despite it being strange colors, it surprisingly looked normal, perhaps because of its dull, dark tone, it served no purpose other than looking good, or so we thought. As for myself, it stayed in its boring black color, not that I minded. Suddenly, a foreign fluid appeared from my nose. Snot? I thought absentmindedly as my hand reached to rub it away. Looking down at my hands to rub the liquid away with a tissue paper, what appeared on my hand was a black red substance, its color a few tones deeper than blood, instead of a transparent fluid. Only when my vision started to blacken did I notice what was happening. Standing up, I called out to the teacher hurriedly before I blacked out, "Teach, toil-" "Ah." I muttered as my vision disappeared and my legs have way. Before I knew it, I had hit the ground. In sensory hell without any signs of time passing, I finally showed signs of waking up, drugged and tired. "She''s waking up." A feminine voice called out. My mind still dull, I slowly sat up from the bed, blinking my sleepiness away as I did so. Looking around, it became apparent that I was in a hospital, while the feminine voice I had heard as I was awaking, belonged to a nurse who was informing the male doctor next to her. After taking a moment to reorganise my thoughts, I asked, "What happened?" Though it was obvious, I had fainted, I was still quite confused. Checking the papers in his hand, the doctor spoke without looking up, "You''re still quite drugged, please refrain from any strenuous movements. As your parents are busied with their work, I will have to explain to you the circumstances of your fainting." As the nurse helped me adjust the bed in an appropriate angle whereas I could sit comfortably as the doctor flipped a few more pages on his clipboard, he finally started explaining, "We''ve applied Intravenous Regional Anaesthesia into your new formed appendages, as such, do not worry if you cannot feel them. It is to prevent any incidents whereas the patient''s control go wild in shock and their new features causes harm." Eh? "A-Are you kidding me?" I muttered as I turned to by back. Perhaps because of the anaesthesia applied, the wings that was flattened between the bed and my back felt like nothing, as well as my tail. "You have been formally recognised as a type 4 Chimera, your documents have been updated with necessary information." I-impossible... "You have been unconscious for four days, and as for today, after some check-ups and other programs, you will be able to return home." He explained. "Four days?" "Indeed, in the time during your unconsciousness, more changes have appeared amongst many humans, their biological makeup is altered in bizarre and extreme methods." "The-Then what about the research concerning the said changes?" "As I mentioned earlier, you are a type 4 chimera, before you, there are three more categories and within those are sub categories, it is near impossible for the research to conclude a satisfactory explanation within this short time frame, please understand." He said, annoyance lacing his tone as if he had gone through such explanations countless times. "Then, what is the ratio of the changed to normal humans?" I asked hesitantly. Before my blackout, there were many humans who hadn''t changed in appearance, and before me, the doctor and his nurse were completely humans. ''''40 to 1." He answered before continuing, "I must leave now, please rest for a moment and digest the information you have just received, rest well and if you feel any abnormalities, please press this button." And after speaking, he promptly left. After his departure, a nauseating feeling washed over me as my mouth opened in an attempt to empty my stomach, yet nothing came out, and with my hand placed above my chest, I tried to contain my discomfort. After what felt like hours of gagging, I finally calmed my beating heart as I noticed a wristband on my arm, its size a little too big, with every action of my arm causing it to tilt backwards and forwards. Flashing a bright red light non stop, I stared at it with confusion. What was this? Fiddling with it for a while, it became apparent that there wasn''t a method to take it off, and its metallic base refused to budge when I attempted to push it out through my hand. Giving up on removing the wristband which color had returned to a still green light, I looked around to find my phone siting on the small table next to my bed. Reaching over, I powered it on as a familiar logo flashed before my lockscreen appeared. To my surprise, reflected on the black screen was an unfamiliar girl with white hair. Because of having a black background photo, my face clearly reflected itself to show how my face had changed. There were still the old features remaining, like my small nose or my thin eyebrows, but in those old features were small changes that flowed together to create an unusually beautiful face. I wasn''t ugly to begin with, it just so happened that the small tweaks made my features harmonise together, creating a face that could rival models. Without much care, I unlocked my phone, ignoring the facial changes. In comparison to my new wings and tail, getting a new face was not that unsettling. [No messages.] As my heart drooped, I went onto searching the web with terms like [Changed], [Chimera], [Human changing]. Results were all over the place, ranging from self collated information of netizens to forums requesting for quarantine in fear of the changed humans. Choosing the top result which was information collected by a freelance researcher, I was presented a wealth of information. But whatever information it gave, it didn''t do much. Talking mostly about the physical capabilities of the evolved humans, it was merely a netizen''s excited rambling as he praised the mysterious force causing these changes. The only useful fact was that families usually go through the same changes, or at least similar ones. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Despite wanting to search deeper, I eventually lost interest, not knowing what information I needed exactly to satisfy my knowledge craving self. Standing up from the bed, I glanced at the clock. It had been two hours since I woke up, it was 2pm now. Grabbing the stand that held the drip bag, or whatever it was called, still connected to my arm, I left my spacious room my parents probably paid a fortune for. Undoubtedly, this was not cheap, having a single room of a prestigious hospital for myself, decorated so carefully to calm the patient within with soft colors and beautiful paintings. Currently, I was at the top floor, where the best and most expensive rooms were, while the rest of the floors were for the less privileged. Despite how this hospital was advertised as prestigious, it''s CEO had been quite charitable with his work, assisting the needy in terms of insufficient funds, their treatments lowered to cater to the poor, resulting in its high popularity. Despite that, my parents had went the extra mile to provide myself with the best treatment regardless of whether price. Walking unsteadily due to the extra weigh placed on my back, I walked down the busy hallway with occasional glances sent my way, unsure visitors whispering to each other as the familiar sound effect of photo taking was heard. Taking the lift with an unusually large space around me, I looked down on my phone absentmindedly as tails drooped between legs came to my sight. Looking up in curiosity, the said tail belonged to a middle aged woman, her ears shaped extremely weirdly with small amounts of brown fur, perhaps in attempt to hide the strange ears she had, her brown hair was untied and made to fall onto her shoulders, providing the smallest of covers for her ears. Next to her was a little girl with similar hair color and features grabbing onto her hand. Observing them silently, I was quickly interrupted as the ''ting'' that sounded whenever a lift had reached a floor came to my ears, inciting the changed pair to walk out. However, the moment I walked out, a scream came to my ears "Run!" it was a man''s frantic scream as he ran towards us, a rampant beast chasing behind him, it''s size a bit larger than the average car. With red eyes and black fur dyed in blood, its humongous, bloodied paws reached to the man, behind it a trail of destruction with humans laying on the ground in pieces along with the destroyed furniture. The man himself had red hair, his age probably within the early twenties, and as he ran his eyes started to glow the same red color the beast had. Amongst those who had just got off the lift, no one moved, perhaps in fear or shock, all of us stood rooted to the ground as our brains desperately tried to interpret the sight before us. The tangible smell of blood hung in the air, doing nothing to quell our fear. Fortunately, the man was running from our right to our left and the beast was too occupied with chasing to notice our presence. But before we could react, the man started to sprout red fur as his body started to grow, especially his arms which quickly rivalled his legs in length, and switching to a four legged, the ''man'' who had grown into a beast similar to a wolf a size larger than the beast chasing it turned to its attacker and attacked it, itself growling in anger. As its paw mashed against the face of the panther like beast, it roared and pushed it down, only to be pushed back with similar vigour. Roars and angried cries sounded as the two beasts tried to beat the other with unrelenting violence, immersed in their fight, we were completely ignored. Watching this in silent fear, a heavy panting appeared at the my side as the small animal eared girl collapsed onto the floor, tears in her eyes as she grasped at the hem of her mother''s skirt as she attempted to squeeze out words. Unfortunately, we were all too occupied with fear, watching as the red beast attempt to topple the other, its jaws snapping near its neck only to rip it apart in the next second. In less than a minute, the black beast drew its final breath as the red one continued to tear into it, only to be disrupted by the hyperventilating of the girl. Turning its red eyes into our direction, a bloodied, wolfy grin appeared on its face as it started to run its way here. "OH MY FUCKING GOD!" A man screamed as he started running, the wolf beast''s interest in us snapping him back into reality. The mother of the child worriedly squatted to pick her child up as the rest of us, myself included dispersed. Plucking off the tube connected to my arm without any bit of pain felt, perhaps because of the adrenaline in my body, dropping the stand I was pulling around, I ran faster than before as I jumped over the countless corspes, my limbs sore from the lack of movement for the past few days. "Don''t turn around, don''t turn around, don''t turn around." I muttered, and yet, I did. Slowing down after covering a significant distance, I turned to notice that in place of the woman and daughter pair, it was now a cat the size of a tiger and its child, the brown animal hissing as the red one circled it in excitement, its jaws snapping at the duo from time to time. A woman that had been running alongside with me, her hair blue, was now on the floor, rocking with her hands covering her ears as she muttered prayings to whatever god she believed in, before her the severed lower body of a human she had tripped over. Perhaps because of the carnage before me, hope dimmed as all I could feel was despair, it was as if the world had just fallen apart, and this was only the beginning. And yet, everything still felt strangely fake and dull, perhaps because of the drugs still circling in my blood. ----------------------- [Author''s note] Hello~ this is a story I''ve kept in the archives of my mind for a long time now, and I suddenly got the urge to write it. Usually when I write, I type anything that comes into my mind, and if I were to read it later, it would feel as if it was another person''s work, that being said, it''s probably the reason why I always leave mistakes lying around, because I''m typing at the spur of the moment, so if you spot any, please tell me. Lastly, though I said I had the plot mapped out, it''s crude and lacking, so please leave suggestions like types of monsters etc, since I''m bad at those. Chapter two Hi, if you''d like to complain about how the main character is weak, I''d like to remind you that if these things were to happen to you at the age of 14, you''d most likely also be hyperventilating on the ground too, all those bullcrap about MCs bounding back in seconds to counter a zombie or some apocalypse is just rubbish, unless that person has some weird mental illness or have something, or someone so important they have to protect, they''ll be able to do so. Normal humans just don''t work that way. She''ll figure it out eventually, not too far from now, actually. --------------------------- Running out from the gate of the hospital, I was greeted by an empty street that was otherwise extremely busy on normal days, a car or two was remaining along with a handful of daredevils who were daringly taking videos of the large red beast. Perhaps finding solace with the brave, though standing a distance away from them with my winged and tailed status, I turned around hesitantly again, to see the creature tearing into the now deceased brown beast, her offspring already long gone into the distance. After dropping the dead Mother, it was yet again distracted by the sobbing and praying of the blue haired woman whose eyes contained nothing by despair, and with another grin, it slowly walked over to the woman, perhaps because of the lack of competition around that could rival it. Strangely enough, unlike the others who had transformed in the face of fear, she stood there trembling as drool leaked from the sides of her mouth, accepting her imminent doom. And with my mouth covered by my hands, I turned around slowly backwards to notice a man seated in his car, his phone pressed against the window to record the sight before him with a pale face. Running towards him with still shaky legs, I started shouting, "Mister, can you give me a ride?" He could obviously hear me, with a bit of his window rolled down, my shouts were impossible to not hear. However, instead of agreeing or even disagreeing, the pale man started to reverse his car out of the parking lot, driving away as quickly as he could without turning back. "Mister!" I screamed at the car driving away from me, "¡­why?" I muttered after stopping to catch my breath, still weak from the shock and drugs. Ah. I knew why now. As I bent over with my hands covering my knees to catch my breath, a white tail whose tip was touching the ground came into my sight, it was my tail. In frustration and lethargy, I sat on the floor, thankfully quite far from the beast and the hospital because of how I attempted to chase the car. Only after turning back did I realize how quickly I was running, it was comparable to a car driving rather slowly, but despite that, it was a feat for human legs to go that quickly. With my phone still clutched in my hands, I started to go through my contacts, quickly finding my mother''s number. "Hello? Amanda?" A panicked voice hurriedly spoke. "Mo-Mother, there¡­..there was an accident, a freak accident, at the hospital! I need a ride, there''s no one here!" hurriedly explained, afraid of something. "Are you okay? I saw the news, our men are already on the way, where are you?" "Umm," I stuttered, glancing around me, "Two streets down at Coverfield lane, the one next to the mall." "Be safe, they should be reaching soon." Mother said before hanging up. As I panted in fear, watching the red flickering light on my wristband which were the only source of entertainment in such a bleak situation. The streets were empty with only a car passing by every few minutes, perhaps because of the news of the incident. More screams came from the distant hospital, perhaps with the patients trapped inside on the upper levels with no method of escape. As well as myself, the hospital where technology was limited to optimize the resting time for patients, we didn''t knew of the changings happening until it hit us. With the adrenaline in my bloodstream gone, the pain of running barefoot hit me, an insignificant prickly feeling that disappeared in seconds brought me back to reality, causing fear hitting me in waves as I started to hyperventilate. This was illogical, nothing was normal, these things, humans turning into beasts, abnormal beasts tearing into humans and beasts alike. Grabbing a dirt covered plastic bag that laid a meter away by crawling towards it with labored breathing, I covered the opening with my mouth. Humans who were breathing minutes ago were now dead, their bodies mutilated, while the rest transformed into creatures that committed senseless killings and cannibalism. No, I mustn''t think about such things. I need to calm down. Calm down. Calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down calm down. It''s okay, it''s okay. Everything''s okay. TO HELL WITH THAT. What will I do now? Will I be killed? Will I turn into the same thing as them? Will I be a Monster than can only rip apart the living beings around me with a smirk on my face? Will I walk around with a bloodied smile hunting the weak? I don''t want to. But, how did someone transform? Was it when one''s emotion became agitated? Will I turn into one now? Will my fear ruin me? No, that woman. She was terrified too. Yet, her life ended with her human form, she didn''t change, she didn''t become a mindless beast. Then, what was the reason behind those transformation? In that red haired man''s situation, he was chased around with still the want to live. For that Mother, she changed trying to protect her Daughter. But that woman, the lack of hope in those eyes, the despair. She didn''t have a purpose. Perhaps, that''s how it worked. So if I didn''t wish for strength, would I stay as myself? I don''t know. As time passed quickly as I was submerged in fear, the red flashing light slowly turned into a green color, the red disappearing along with the fear. Of course, it didn''t leave completely, and it probably never will. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it How long has it been? I thought absentmindedly as I checked the timing on my phone, it had been only an hour. Where were they? The men Mother sent. Dialling her number with shaky hands, instead of her voice, the familiar beep made it apparent that her phone was off. Fearing the worst, I called Father. "Father?" I asked after I connected. "Listen to me, move to the center of the city, we cannot save you now, it''s impossible for anyone to listen to me and risk their life, don''t turn back, don''t detour, keep walking and keep in contact, conserve your battery power, if you''re hungry raid some stores." He hurriedly explained. "They''re securing the middle of the city, the military is gathered there and medicine for calming is being given out, the band around your hand is helpful in telling your emotions, when it''s flashing red, it means you''ll turn soon, if it flashes blue, you''re gone. Don''t ever let it change to that color." "Father! Listen to me, it doesn''t work that way!" I screamed, "It happens when someone desires for strength, no matter how scared, how rapid your heart is beating, it only happens when you wish for power!" "What do you mean?" "I''ll explain it to you, get something, someone to get me! Use your money, bribe them! I can''t run! Save me, Father!" I begged, "Don''t leave me out here!" "I can''t!" His frustrated voice came into my ear, "The city center is in turmoil, everyone''s trying to evict the changed humans, my men are in danger of transforming themselves, money is useless at this point!" Even as he spoke, screams could be heard as well as fighting at the background. After taking a deep breath, he spoke with the calm voice I was used to hearing, "Amanda, it would be a miracle if I could convince people that we shouldn''t isolate or kick out the changed, if I don''t stay here, even more will die, you must understand!" "Stop trying to be the people''s leader, please, please come and save me, please Father, please, you can still win presidency after this, please please please." "You don''t understand! Amanda, I cannot save you, you have wings yourself, you can come and find me, I must help the city secure a safe location before anything!" He spoke with renewed anger. As tears soaked my face, I spoke with despair, "I the end, I will never understand." "I cannot speak anymore, just come and I will protect you then, fly here if you can." He hurried spoke as the screams at the background became louder and louder, before the beep of the call disconnection came to my ear. "¡­in the end, you still wouldn''t care about me." I spoke with sniffles interrupting every syllable. ---------------------- I didn''t know how much I had walked, with the compass directing me in the beginning, the only thing I had to do now was continue walking. The rocks on the road dug into my feet as I walked through the empty buildings, all I had on me was the hospital gown, my undergarments and my phone. My appearance was extremely rugged, my wings limply dragged across the floor along with my tail, the drugs applied on it still in my bloodstream, protecting me from the pain I would''ve received otherwise. Strangely enough, there wasn''t any beasts in my sight, perhaps the only reason why people gathered in the middle of the city was out of fear of the news they''ve received from the media. Of course, there were also skeptical people looking out at their windows, the peering and wary eyes scanning my movement. On the streets were a few imprudent humans, changed or not, raiding stores and houses, relishing in the sudden chaos. Fights broke out as owners who had stayed behind fought tooth and nail against the multiple people attacking his store. As I walked, whistles could be heard as a few human silhouettes appeared behind me, their footsteps alarmingly loud. Perhaps because of my changing, my senses became sharper, and with every minute I spent, the drugs wore off to sharpen my physical abilities and senses. Yet, I continued walking, the stupor I was in refusing to let me go. Only when a hand grabbed my shoulder did I realise they had been calling out to me from a while ago. "She must be deaf, huh?" "Pffft, quite a beautiful girl we have here, look at those wings, reminds me of cosplay, wouldn''t mind to fuck her." "Dude, that''s your fetish? Are you kidding me?" A man laughed as he elbowed the second speaker. "Won''t she turn into a beast, like what the videos show? Fuck imagine this cunt turning during a fuck." Another guy snickered. How horrible, as people died, these people ran around stealing. My heart contracted, remembering the Mother that had transformed, relished her humanity, in desperation to save her Daughter. Some people were too self centered and ignorant, causing more harm, while the others sacrificed themselves to save others. Tears that stopped only a while ago came back as my legs gave way again, forcing me to collapse to the ground in a crying mess. "Oi, what are you doing!" A voice came from afar. Pushing apart the men surrounding me, a middle aged man came to my sight as he asked, "What the¡­.are you okay?" Grabbing my shoulder with two hands, forcing myself to look up. "Let''s go, to the middle of the city." He said, pulling me up along with himself, ignoring the annoyed grunts of the men around. As we walked away from the surrounding men, a beast''s cry could be heard as screams erupted all around. Hesitantly, the both of us turned around to see a large green bird, perhaps larger than a helicopter, come towards a woman a distance away from us with its claws positioned to grab her, it''s lower body leaned forwards with its legs stretched out and it''s wings slowing its descent. "Shit, run!" He shouted, pulling my hand. -------------------- Thanks for reading, please leave comments and suggestions, it''s like my fuel and motivation for writing. Also, if you''re free, pelase check out my other novels, [Five souls, 1 body] For a similarly dark story, or [The Heroes'' Familiar] for a more light hearted one. Chapter three Thank you for the kind comments, I was on the verge of going on a short hiatus for this novel and going to my other two because of that ridiculous rating, but here I am. My goal is to finish this prologue within five chapters, though it''s named chapter 1-5, in reality it''s far from the story I want to tell, but it''s named such a way to prevent situations whereas people purposely skip the prologue. -------------------------- As he led me into a deserted clothing store where shelves laid toppled and display racks emptied, walking into a room with an arc for a door in the large store, we met with two other children. "They''re my children, Todd and Ana, I''m Ethan." He introduced with a smile. The boy had messy brown hair and seemed to be around my age was, similarly taller and bulkier like his Father, his built larger than an average boy his age, on his back a large backpack seen on mountain climbers. Next to him was a young girl perhaps no older than seven, this time a fiery orange mop of hair on her head, a blank expression decorating her beautiful face. "And this is," he started, only to be ignored as I stared at his children. With a cough from his throat, I introduced myself, "Amanda." "Ah, that sounds like my name, hehe." Ans giggled. "It''s not safe to go out, we''ll rest here for a bit, you look unwell, are you okay?" The man asked. "¡­yes." I muttered. "You''re from the Cloverleaf Hospital, aren''t you?" The boy pointed to my hospital gown, "I saw it online, it''s been attacked." "It has been, strange how no one knew what was going on until we met the beasts." I lamented. "The first documented transformation happened overseas, around 1pm. At that point, hordes of people booked it and drove to the middle of the city." "Why the middle?" "Someone online said it would be safe, and that the military would most likely be deployed there first. Didn''t anyone leave from the hospital?" Thinking back, as I woke up, it was around 12, while I spent over two hours getting an explanation and feeling sick, then the rest on surfing the net. And when I left my room, those eyes glued to me, it must''ve contained fear and cautiousness. No wonder the hospital was packed. "It just started happening all around in Hospitals, jails, houses, courts, all sorts of places where people would get agitated from." "What about this wrist band?" I asked, fiddling with it. It had been on me long before transformations became a thing. "Since people that changed get improved physical abilities, they made it so that we wore it for the safety of others." He muttered, raising his hand to show his own wrist band. Turning to look around me, only did I notice that the man and the girl too, wore those bands which was hidden under the sleeves of their shirts. Perhaps I was too confused to notice. "What happened to you?" The man asked with a worried expression. "I fell unconscious four days ago, I only woke up today and I was met with hell." At that point, tears threatening to spill yet again. "Fuck, that must be bad." The man whispered under his breath, too soft for his children to hear, but just enough for my ears to catch. As we spoke, the screams outside seemed to have lessened, but I was not the only one that noticed it. "I''ll check the situation outside, stay here, all of you." He said, leaning his upper body backwards to peer from the arc, the kitchen knife in his hand gripped tightly. As he tightened the straps of his own bag, he turned to me and spoke, "That gown looks¡­¡­uncomfortable, if you can find any clothes that can accommodate your¡­¡­wings, change." Pointing around at the remaining few clothes in this store. As he cautiously walked out, his head turning right and left to glance through the windows of the store, I went to find a shirt and pants. Of course, other than incredibly revealing clothing, and simple t-shirts and long jeans no one would wear in such an situation, nothing much was left, forcing me to get Creative. Cutting u-shaped holes from the collar of the shirt , I slid it up from my feet to my back, the holes sliding around the base of my wings that sprouted from my shoulder blades, safety pins holding the shirt together, lest it fell off my body. Cutting the jeans to the length where it was at the middle of my thigh and a hole for my tail, as its size was too large, I wore it with a man''s belt I salvaged at the back of the store. Of course, I looked incredibly shoddy, but this was good enough, too bad there weren''t shoes here. Luckily, there were rubber bands that I could use to tie my hair into a pony tail, as well as Ana''s, who quickly warmed up to me. As I finished changing into appropriate clothing, the man returned with perfect timing, sweat drenching his body. "Coast is clear, we can go, a few stores down is a sports store, we''ll get some shoes there." He spoke, looking at the shoddy Crocs shoes his Daughter wore and my slightly bloodied bare feet. Picking up his Daughter, he pressed her head against his shoulder and he spoke, "Let''s go, hang tight. Todd you walk behind and watch out for anything that comes our way, Ana, you do the same." Walking out with a pained expression on his face, he turned to see his Son hesitating on his steps, noticing the humans that had splattered on the floor, perhaps because of the bird beast dropping them. As his face became pale and slightly green, his Father grabbed his hand and pulled him away, "Don''t look." Luckily, or unluckily, with the sights I had seen earlier, I somehow became number to such a sight, though the band on my hand started to flash yellow. This was a reality I had to get used to. Turning away, I followed the three of them who had been steadily moving instead of waiting for me, though the man was kind, his children were still his highest priority. As he said, we quickly came to a sports store which was even bare than the clothing one, with the display racks in front completely empty. Thankfully the children''s shoes still had some, and stuffing socks into the front and back of shoes of a larger size allowed both me and Justine to wear those shoes, while the Father and Son both already had sports shoes for themselves. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. The things they picked up were small compact bags they carried at the front of their body, filled with their identification papers and valuables, dropping their clothing and extra items, with the exception of compact dry food and a water bottle. "After this, we''re not making anymore stops until night, it''s now close to five, our goal is to get to the safe zone, not looking for weapons, we''ll have to close as much distance as we can today. Our strategy will be to run, never look back, never engage and always, stay close." Again, after peering outside of the windows, he carried Ana on his back and led us outside. "Keep a lookout for the sides and the back." He instructed as we walked, the occasional cries of some creature keeping us on our toes as we moved away from the source of noise. It was getting worse, more people were transforming as the beasts rampaged and fear took hold of the once skeptical humans, the originally open windows now closed shut perhaps in fear of the carnage present on the streets. Currently, as the gathered humans around the street were killed, the beasts also dispersed or killed while fighting amongst themselves, two beasts laying dead with signs of being eaten on their body. Other than blood and death, there weren''t any other smell in the air, causing an incredibly gloomy atmosphere on the streets as we walked. The already darkening sky forced us to be wary of any dark colored beasts, yet strangely, we became more sensitive and awake as the sun descended. As we trekked, the man suddenly stopped as his hand reached out to the side to stop us from moving. His nose in the air, he sniffed around repeatedly before whispering, "Run." Pulling the hand of his Son as well as mine, we started sprinting at a speed impossible for humans to achieve as a thud was heard behind us followed by claws clicking against the cement floor. "It''s a beast or something, I smelt blood and some scent on it." He muttered, his hands letting go of ours as he took the kitchen knife he had as we continued running. "I''ll try and wound it, you guys go take shelter, I won''t fight it, I''ll just throw the knife." He spoke with gritted teeth, passing his Daughter onto the back of his son''s. "I should help you." Todd muttered. "Impossible. I''m going to stop running, while you guys go to that red bricked caf¨¦ in front." He pointed at a building a few streets away. "Hopefully it gives up if it''s injured, we can''t outrun it." Suddenly stopping in his tracks and turning around with his wrist band flashing a constant red, his hand raised to aim. Remembering the cause of transformation suddenly, I shouted at him turning around, "Don''t wish for power! If you can''t injure it just run and lead it away!" But before I could shout anymore, the hand holding mine jerked me away, forcing me to keep running. "Can you carry Ana? I won''t leave him there." "But, but he said-" "I know what he said! But he''s not following his words either! I can''t leave him there!" "If anything, I should go." I muttered, "I''ll fly." It was absurd, risking my life for a man I met three hours ago. If he died, I wouldn''t know what to do anymore. Perhaps, I was only being selfish, wanting this man''s survival, who I met only three hours ago. He was the only human I met kind enough to reach out a helping hand to another in this time, he was the only one considerate enough to show a shred of kindness when I was in despair. "Do you even know how to?!" "I''ll figure it out!" Turning around suddenly, giving him no chance to pass his Sister to me, I started running to where the man was, my wings flapping slightly, gaining momentum as I ran. Slowly it opened to its maximum potential, it''s length roughly the same as a buggy car''s. As we ran at an impossible speed after freeing ourselves of the man who ran slower, we were already a street away from the caf¨¦, giving me plenty of distance to cover as I experimented with flight. Praying in my heart as my feet rose an inch above ground, I kept going, but only to fail at the hands of gravity as I almost fell to my right on the floor. Remembering the purpose of a tail, I tilted it to the left, leaning part of my weight on it, and with such an discovery, I flew about twenty inches off the ground with my body parallel from it, though far from taking to the skies, it was an achievement. Seeing the man toppled by the beast as it bit into his arm, I quickly flapped my wings towards them, flying slightly higher than before as my hands reached out and nails grew longer to grab the large black feline the size of a bike off him. Finding a grip on its slick fluffy neck, my elongated nails dug into his meat as I mustered all my strength to pull him off from his body. Of course, I was far from capable of pulling this beast upwards even over an inch, I still attempted to pull it away with furious flaps of my wings. As I dragged it away, the injured man ran towards me with wary as he pulled out the knife lodged in the stomach of the beast, plunging it in and out as I pulled its neck, forcing his face and jaws away from the man. As the man stabbed him over and over again for at least fifty times, the beast finally stopped struggling, though alive. And with the stillness of the beast who''s face was still away from the man, the man leaned his face onto its body, searching for its heart before plunging his knife into the beast''s heart. Pulling out the knife upon the beast''s death, he sighed in relief as he panted furiously. "Haa, that was horrible." He mumbled, wiping the sweat from his forehead. Looking down at his bloodied arm and knife, he winced in pain, throwing the knife a distance away into the grass. "It''s dull now, the body of the beast is too strong." He muttered, "Let''s go, don''t stay here, the blood will probably attract some beasts." As we walked slowly, it was obvious to see the wounds he had on his arm heal itself extremely slowly, with the bleeding stopping by the time we reached the caf¨¦. Before we entered, with his hand on the handle of the door, a soft word he muttered came into my ear, "Thanks." Was it for saving him, or stopping his Son from running over, I didn''t know. Chapter four Entering the caf¨¦, we were greeted by Ana bounding our way, her head butting into her father''s embrace as she cried tears of relief, her hands grasping onto his sweater tightly. Behind her was Todd, staring our way as he wiped away sweat that had covered his forehead in his fear, his accusing yet relieved eyes piercing into my heart. Holding his Daughter with his uninjured arm, he smiled in relief as well before he released her, his injured arm raised in the air. "I have to wash this, honey." He softly whispered as he gave her a kiss. "I''ll do it for you, daddy." She said with a gasp before running to get the water bottle in Todd''s bag that laid on the ground. With a gentle blow at his wound, she poured water on top of it. "Pain pain go away." She said, her brows furrowed as she carefully wiped the wound with tissues she had gotten from the toilet of the caf¨¦. Watching his Daughter with a gentle smile, he turned to Todd suddenly, asking, "Todd, did you find anything here?" "Some bread and coffee, the cakes won''t be filling enough, but we can still eat them." Todd said coldly as he turned to get some food. "Yea, let''s eat the bread and the cakes, the coffee I''ll drink tomorrow. Let''s save the dry food for emergencies." The man nodded as he wrapped his wound with a table cloth and held it together with the extra safety pin in kept just in case. After eating a lukewarm meal of bread, butter and cakes, we pulled the shutters of the windows down to hide our presence and slept on the floor of the staff room, not forgetting to lock all the doors and windows. Huddling together with Ana while the two Father and Son too, huddled together despite it only being spring. Even without the cold, we instinctively sought out each other, the perhaps finding a sense of stability and security with each other. With my feathery wings covering both my and Ana''s body, my fluffy tail a pillow for her to hug, she slept like that. Having the warmth of another human in my embrace calmed my heart, and hoping that this warmth would never disappear, I fell asleep without dallying, mentally exhausted by the events that occurred today. Yet strangely, I was awake in two hours, more awake than I was in the afternoon. Perhaps because of my four days of rest, or because I''ve changed to become more active at night, I sat up, noticing a pair of yellow eyes staring at me. "Todd?" I whispered. "What animal are you?" He asked, whispering back, "We''re bears, so we don''t get sleepy much." "Bears?" I mouthed, "How''d you know?" Certainly, the didn¡¯t have bear tails or ears, the only distinguishable feature being their brown hair. "DNA test. We went to a hospital to get checked out, our DNA changed." He shrugged, "Ana''s a fox, so she sleeps at night, we had to accommodate to her sleeping hours but we''re usually doing other stuff at night." "I don''t know what I am." I muttered, "I only know I''m a mix." Shaking free of Ana''s hug, I stood up with a stretch and spoke, "I''ll go walk around the store." Before leaving. Climbing up the stairs to the second floor of the caf¨¦, I met with that man who sat in front of the glass door to the balcony, the curtains pulled apart slightly for him to look outside. Noticing my smell headed his way, he turned around, "Hey." "You could smell me?" I asked. Nodding in reply, he motioned for me to sit next you him. "Where''s your parents? If you don''t mind me asking. Need me to contact them? I still have battery on my phone." "I have mine too, they''re already at the centre of the city, I''ll have to meet with them there." I replied with a shrug. Taking out my phone, I turned it on and browsed the web, with that man keeping watch. Other than phone lines being toppled, buildings are also in danger of collapsing, there were apparently beasts, mostly herbivores, larger than trucks. Other than staying away from large tall buildings which might collapse on us if a beast were to run into it, there wasn''t much news. From some netizens were complaints of being kicked out from the secured areas, hordes of humans bandung together to throw anyone changed out, with some people diabolically informing the changed humans to dye their hair. "Will we be able to get in?" I asked, scrolling through these comments as that man peered over my shoulder. "Who knows, setting up camp around there should be safe regardless, but that''s just the worst case scenario." He spoke, rubbing the back of his head in frustration. "You must hate the fact that you''re changed, huh?" I mumbled, I hated it too. "Not really." He said, to my surprise. With widened eyes, perhaps because of shock and betrayal, I asked, "Why?" Not understanding why anyone would want to be isolated, to be different from humans, our current appearance reason for distrust and wary gazes. "Ana, you see, was blind, at least until she changed." He spoke, "When the changing started for her, she commented on how the world became colorful, running into my embrace with happiness as she walked around the house, attracted by lamps and paintings which were at that point, only blobs of color for her." "I don''t regret it, her changing, even with her appearance now, at least she''s happy, seeing her happy, it makes me want to preserve that happiness no matter what, even if it costs my life." "¡­¡­don¡¯t talk like that." I mumbled. "Ah, sorry." He noticed the darkness in his words, "I won''t change." "Please¡­.don''t." I pleaded softly, but loud enough for him to hear. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ------------------------ Upon sunrise, Ethan went to wake the children up, albeit Todd wasn''t asleep, and after packing the remaining bag of bread, we set off on our journey. Because of our changed bodies, our appetite was very heavy, and the man himself had finished two loafs of bread with ease, still craving more, yet he chose to let us eat our fill. Currently, with Ana on his back and his bag carried in front of him, we walked forwards on the side of the road, by noon, the center of the city not too far away anymore. However, he suddenly reached his hand out again, both him and Todd sniffing the air suspiciously. A second later, the nostalgic sound of a driving car and a strange thudding sound came from behind us. Turning behind us, a black SUV was seen driving at breakneck speed towards us, behind it a charging rhinoceros slightly larger than a truck. "Fuck!" The man cursed before running into one of the stores with closed doors next to us, "Find an open door!" He said, pushing the door before running to the next store. "We should just run! We''re close anyways! That thing should be too occupied by the car!" I shouted, the car was already quite far in front of us, the rhinoceros gaining distance, between them was only one meter. Taking Ana from his embrace, Todd ran forwards, with his Father chasing after him quicker than before with Justine off him, his forte being strength instead of speed, myself flying a meter off the ground with a speed my running couldn''t achieve. As we ran, the telltale signs of gunshot could be heard as well as the rhino''s furious cries followed by screams and sounds of destruction. Chasing up to the secured area, the rhinoceros was seen knocking into the makeshift sand bags piled there, bullets raining onto its body as it flung soldiers away. We had came to an entrance numbered 11, the number painted on with white paint on the sand bag piles. In the confusion, a man with grey hair and tusks protruding out of his mouth who was knocked away suddenly grew in size as the originally red flashing light at his wrist turned blue, becoming an elephant whose size rivalled the rhinoceros''s as it crashed against the floor before standing up, it''s eyes gleaming red. With an angry toot, the elephant charged with its head bent down, it''s tusks positioned to scoop the rhinoceros up, as the soldiers who were perhaps once it''s friends shot at it indiscriminately. Skidding to a stop, Todd held back both his Father and I, "Let''s go from another entrance." He shouted with gritted teeth, repositioning his Sister in his arms before getting up and running to the side. As we continued running, I took out my phone and dialled the emergency number I had set yesterday with shaky hands, my heart begging for Father to pick up. The moment the call connected, I screamed into the phone, "We''re at the entrance, 11 is under Attack! We''re running to the one next to it!" "Wait! Aman-" before he could finish his sentence, my phone had already slipped out of my sweaty hand as my wings flapped furiously at an incredible speed, despite my head turning back, I knew I couldn''t go back for it. I could only hope he wasn''t trying to give any bad news. Yet my guttural instinct, no, my common sense, knew that it was bad. Speedily making our way to the next entrance, we were met with wary eyes and gun nozzles as the army eyed us. "The changed aren''t allowed entrance." A soldier shouted from a distance, a distance with an invisible barrier we could see, but could fee. "Him!" Ethan shouted, pointing a man within them, armed with a gun and outfit, yet his hair was ironically green and a wristband decorating his wrist. "He volunteered to risk his life to protect the city, but too many changed and the humans will revolt!" The soldier shouted back. "My father''s Thomas Keathe, we should be allowed entrance!" I screamed, my feet planted on the floor and my wings folded behind my back, perhaps because of my insecurity. Hearing my shout, the soldier pressed the walkie talkie on his shoulder, muttering into it as the soldiers all whispered with each other. "Thomas¡­¡­has a changed child?" A Whisper came from within the soldiers. "Fuck, if that''s true, he would''ve betrayed us¡­" Another soldier muttered. "He must''ve dyed his hair¡­if he changes in the city, it''ll cause a revolt." Biting my lip in frustration, I shouted yet again, "That won''t happen!" I didn''t know why I was protecting a man who wouldn''t come to save his Daughter, but yet, I shouted before I could think about what I was going to say. "I was adopted!" As more whispers broke out, the soldier in charge finally spoke, "You''re allowed in, but that three, aren''t." "What? Don''t bullshit me! Go contact whoever you have to, get us in!" I shouted as the ferocious cries of the two beasts fighting became louder and the gunshots becoming rarer. They must''ve thought of letting the beasts fight and taking out the weak one afterwards. However, what they didn''t expect was for the elephant beast to run away, charging our way in coincidence, ramming into the Ethan. ""Dad!"" --------------- Does anyone know any good apps for phone to write stories that can word count? Also, when you copy paste it doesn''t have royalroadl register a font, causing the chapter to look weird. Also, I wonder why I''m so into this novel, maybe because I''ve always wanted to write it? Or because of the support? Anyways, thank you very much for reading and supporting this story :) Chapter five Snapping my head around to catch the sight of Ethan being hit away, I quickly gathered whatever strength I had and flew over as fast as I could to catch his body before it hit the ground. "No no no no no." I muttered as wailing of Ana''s came from the background. Despite making it in time just enough before he touched the ground, my strength was far from enough to stop the momentum. Crashing into the floor with the limp Ethan in my hands, I was in pain. Not because of the fall, but because of my heart thumping and constricting. "No, you can''t die!" I screamed, yet too afraid to move him, with his hands and legs in positioned strangely, the bones obviously broken. "Daddy!" Ana screamed, running over. Thankfully, the elephant beast was already charging away, not stopping once to Attack the soldiers or us anymore after ramming into him. "He needs medical attention, please!" I screamed to the soldiers at the sides, turning to them. Yet what I was met with were the nozzles of guns, with every soldier''s finger on their trigger. "Daddy! Daddy! DADDY!" Ana screamed, yet too afraid to touch his body, watching as his tired eyes stared at her. Todd who had already collapsed on the floor with tears in his eyes said nothing, hatred and despair painted all over his face. All of our bands were already red, justine''s blue, yet we merely sat there, not knowing what to do, with guns pointed in our directions. Noticing the blue flicker on her band, a teenaged soldier fired his gun, with shaky hands, missing her heart, but still hitting her body. In an instant, her back that was facing the soldiers was penetrated, forcing her to fly towards onto the stomach of her Father, who''s eyes grew bigger as he ignored the pain and tried to understand he situation. As the band around his arm started to flicker to blue, ominous cracking sounds could be heard as his limbs twisted back into place, his sweat drenched face turning furry. "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO, MISTER, YOU CANT CHANGE, NO!" Knowing the watchful eyes of the soldiers behind us, I spread my wings and covered his body, afraid of the gunfire that will follow. Of course, it was too late. Before I knew it, a bear the same size as the elephant was in front of me, his snout facing me as drool leaked out of his mouth. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "Open fire!" As gunshots rang, the bear did nothing but gentle sniff his Daughter, his mouth opened carefully to pick up his Daughter, moving to his Son, he nudged him slightly and walked away. With myself pulling Todd up, the both of us walked behind the bear, who''s body was filled with bullets as the soldiers finally ceased fire, unwilling to waste their ammunition seeing how we were willing to leave. In my arms were his bag, and limping away with injuries in my leg and wing, tears flowed freely. Thankfully, Todd who was quite far from us earlier was safe. In my heart I knew, either that man would lose his humanity soon, or he would die from his injures before it happened. Walking a distance away to a park nearby, he finally stopped, dropping his Daughter who was now a red eyed fox who scurried away the moment she was placed down, he collapsed, tinges of red appearing in his blue eyes. Slowly, he started to grow deeply as he stood back up, running back towards the entrance, causing gunfire to ring across the city, screams and shouts of agony accompanying it. Pulling my hands to my head, I covered my ears, hoping that I could just escape reality, I could just leave this accursed place. Just sitting there quietly weeping, Todd similarly sat next to me, too shell shocked to cry. His Father''s angered roars became softer before it completely stopped with the sound of bombs exploding followed by men''s screaming. Coming from the entrance, a green monitor lizard came into our sight, giving us a glance before the injured bear pulled it towards him with a paw, biting down on its scaly body. Afterwards, time seemed to pass strangely, it felt extremely slow, yet fast, with our minds cloudy yet empty. Even as the sun set, we did nothing. "You okay?" A old man who seemed to out of place walked out of a building, a sword sheath by his side as he appraised us. Seeing our wretched appearances, he sighed before picking us up and throwing us on both sides of his shoulders with a grunt, "Let''s go." ---------------- A short chapter that''ll conclude the end of the prologue. The plan was to kill off everyone, including Todd and her parents, but¡­¡­ Fumu. I worked hard. Chapter six changed Justine > Ana, and Amanda looses her pet name. No idea where is this story set in, I''m a history student instead of a geography one, and I don''t really study maps, oops. Also, this chapter is quite peaceful, I need to set up the background information and all, action will come, eventually. The first two years was hard, humankind had to reclaim their cities slowly, some people migrated by themselves and claimed areas of their own. During then, 2 billion people died because of the changing, then the famine that came took another 2 billion or so. Poorer countries like Africa suffered, while countries with lower gun law regulations survived better, and in the city I was in, it took back 30% of their city starting from the middle of the city, while a part of the north area was claimed by the changed migrants. In the seas were an estimated 3 million of changed humans who had either transformed or changed enough to survive in the waters and not on land, not including those that can survive on land and water. Winged humans took to the skies and claimed mountains, chasing off humans who resided there. The rest either took parts of cities or completely took it for themselves, many towns overtaken by only a small groups of people. Four years ago, on the ninth day of the start of the apocalypse, I woke up without any memories, screaming in the middle of the night of unspeakable horrors I couldn¡¯t remember. With a strange expression mixed with relief, guilt, sadness and many more I couldn''t put my finger on, he gave me a big hug as he explained how I was his Sister, and we lost our parents in the start of the apocalypse. Todd, my Brother. Currently, we lived in a small town about a five day trip from a changed human friendly city. The town boasted a population of roughly two hundred, with few adults, many children and the leaders we recognised, old man Faren and his Wife, Miran. Currently, winter had just passed, and all the children who hibernatedjust started to wake up, each of them going about to hunt to replenish our individual food stock, usually if one wasn''t injured, sick or disabled, they had to hunt for themselves, though the things they hunted could be traded for other things. "Deer or eggs?" Todd asked. "Deer?" I asked hopefully. "Both it is." He muttered, "I''m craving them." Having just woke up a week ago from winter, his appetite made its appearance as he choose fussily about what he wanted to eat. With his towering height of 2.10mand toned thick bodyat 18, he ate like a cow, but meat instead of grass. Perhaps for years ago, one would wonder how taking eggs from chickens would be harder than shooting a deer, but somehow the standard had switched places. Luckily, I could fly. With a sigh, I looked up at the impossibly tall tree before me, and the humongous bird nest perched on it. "Come on, it''s fine." "I hate you." I muttered before flapping my wings, taking to the sky as I placed both of my hands on my sword handles, "Shout at me if you see anything coming my way!" "I didn''t sleep my brain to nothingness, you know?" Snorting, I quickly landed on the nest the length of a single bed, and throwing the eggs the size of school bags down on an unobstructed route we had cleared branches out of before winter, I quickly cleared out the nest. "Come on, hurry up, won''t want the Mom back, we need her eggs for the future too." Thankfully, the bird beast situated here was a human turned one, with no particular mates around, though on the third year she produced some baby birds, but that was the only exception. If it were to see us raiding its nest it would attack, considering that we ate her only batch of fertile eggs and every batch of her infertile ones. Once it flew towards us with a furious cry and all I could do was throw my sword at it, luckily it didn''t die. Afterall, we stole that batch of fertile eggs. It was quite scary to crack it open to find a small dead bird inside, goo, blood and all. "This can sell for a good price, should we sell four and keep two?" "Watch me eat it." Containing the urge to roll my eyes, I spoke again, "Let''s go drop it at the house, you can''t be carrying five fragile bags around if we''re going to hunt." "The children spotted a dozen red eyed bucks, we should take it down, it''s presumably a family that changed from another city or town and took control of a herd." He muttered. Red eyes were a term we coined for humans who had transformed into monsters, their eyes red and their body stronger than the others. Their directoffspringhad pink eyes and matured extremely quickly and had power similar, but slighter weaker than their parents.while as the bloodlines got more diluted, pink and red eyes became rather rare. And the best thing is, since the winter, ever since Todd wasn''t around to mark all over the forest like the animal he is, the herds started to come back, and they could hunt near their town instead of running too far. "Or, we could always lead them to the city?" I suggested. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. "Bucks the size of cars mowing down countless houses as well as red eyes half the size of trucks? Good idea." He said with a smirk. One thing he really liked to do was to harm the city with a distance that took three days of walking at human speed, we would always attack or lead herds, packs, prides to its doorstep for the heck of it. That city was named Kleane, the surname of the president who had shamelessly named it after himself. Kleane was a city founded on hunting, be it normal beasts, red eyes or changed humans, they dealt with them similarly. Yet how were they able to attack the changed or beasts? It was all to a phenomenal change that happened to some of those that did not change, and small amounts of the changed. The growing of a ruby Gem at their bodies, some appeared on foreheads, back of hands, chest. And what it did was allow the usage of¡ªmagic. That city in particularly had many magic users, perhaps by pure luck, or by migration. Of course, being able to wield it didn''t mean certain death to monsters like us, our body had a certain resistance to magic, depending on our constitution. And towns with changed that had high resistance usually provided their men to attack that city, since that city was a threat to our lives. With Todd running at an incredibly speed below the flying me, the both us quickly returned to the town, and giving the egg filled bags to a girl that lived with us to do odd jobs in exchange for food, she promptly went to cook and store the remaining eggs. In our town, the single adult that had came here to live three years ago had taken the role of being a blacksmith, with metals importing to our small town in exchange for food. Ever since his arrival, more and more children who had feared battle would pick up skills from him, albeit the girls preferred to learn to make clothing and many other things with the leather of beasts. Those that couldn''t hunt, be it normal humans or young children, they learned either to cut and separate our prey, smith, work on crafts first, and by the age of fifteen, they are given a customary hunting trip with the older teens, if they were to fail or deemed unfit to hunt, they would be forced to returned to do the job they were doing. Everyone else that graduated from labor work would hunt for themselves, though everyone had to take turns hunting for the children and workers, our system worked out. Our village had about sixty three people working, including children, while the hundred and thirty seven other people worked to feed their own parties. Parties were when someone was unwilling to hunt or live themselves, and forms a group with their family or friends. Those that partied together are given houses corresponding to the amount of people partied together. Thankfully, when the old man brought us in, he was already settled in on a small town that could easily house five hundred people. Within the first year, we had about fifty people, and at first we had to split between hunting and building wooden fences to keep away humans and beasts, though it wouldn''t do much if they were purposefully trying to get in. Currently we were in discussion to consolidate with the neighbouring town, it wasn''t too far away but one town had to choose to move in with us, though the negotiations were far from complete. Before we left the town earlier we had already thrown on our armour and sheathed our weapons, my twin swords at my sides while Todd''s axe rested against his back, pressed against by his bag. With my wings, it was extremely troublesome to carry large bags, the only thing I had was a pouch I could fasten to my thigh, carrying my identification card as well as some pink coins. Currently, the universal currency was coins made from eyes of beasts, though there were beasts with one or more than two, it really depended on luck. Upon the beast''s death, the eyeball would subsequently harden, and with heat applied to it as well as force, one could flatten it to a convinient size. Usually, it''s value depended on its size, with small pink coins worth less than the larger ones. "How long do you think this will take?" I mutter, hungry and lazy, digging into the cooked meat, wrinkling my nose in disgust. It was meat that had been siting in our refrigerator from a week ago. Eating a portion of meat and eggs with a bowl about 1.5 times bigger than a soccer ball, I stared dumbly at the three bowls of the same size in front of Todd, all finished. "A day or two? Let''s bring a party with us so they can bring back the meat and we go to the city, it''s been a while since we took some jobs." On good thing about living here was that there was no freedom limiting rules, as long as you contribute to the town, don''t start fights with fellow towns folk, live in your own assigned houses, you can come and go as you''ve wished. Even for residents who had not returned for a year had their home waiting for them, since our population was still Low and the town we took over was plenty large for all of us. "Then, Kleane followed by Bariso?" I asked. "Yeah, why not?" He said, his mouth full of meat and eggs. ---------------- Fumu, what a lying sack of potatoes, Todd you evil evil man. Chapter seven More character development~ Also, thank you very much to Sedactive for helping me figure out a money system~ If you have any questions or suggestions, please comment it, and also, read comments for some extra information that I might have given as answers, if I don''t answer, then the answer you seek may just be in the next chapter. Fumu, and may I just add that comments/ratings = More chapters. ------------------ "Let''s go." He spoke, stretching lazily as he walked out of our small house, turning back to shout towards the kitchen. "We''ll be back in a month or two, have fun!" The girl who lived with us was a human we found wandering with her Mother at the outskirts of the Kleane city, rejected due to their weak nature. Her Mother worked in a bigger household, the two of them meeting each other whenever they could, despite living in different houses. "Are we going to hunt the deers or the city first?" I asked, quickly putting down the utensils in my hand as I chased after him and out of the door. "City? Now that I think about it, it''ll be better if I I''ll ask old man Faren to send some people there." He shrugged before quickening his pace, "If we get some interesting stuff in the city, it''ll be nice." "You don''t want to get that city?" "It''s okay, Faren will take care of it." He said as he flashed a lazy smirk. As Faren''s house was only a few houses away, courtesy of the man himself, we quickly reached. Knocking on the door loudly, Todd shouted annoying, "Old man, open up!" With a few grunts and crashes in the background, the old man at his early fifties opened the door, his Wife shouting behind him. "Watch your step you old fogey!" "Yes yes." He replied with an annoyed expression before glancing at us. "What?" He asked, squinting his eyes, knowing we were up to no good. "Old man, the red eyes herd, get someone to lead them to Kleane, the two of us are going to Bariso." "Kleane? That''s a good idea¡­" He muttered as his hand rubbed his Chin, weaving through his prickly beard, and after a moment, he looked up again, "Also, stop calling me old man!" "But you''re just like one." "¡­to think you''d be more respectful, considering that I saved your ass four years ago." He grumbled, pulling the same line he had used for four years now. "Yes yes, I''m touched. Anyways, bye." He smirked before grabbing my hand, "Let''s go at full speed." With a strong throw, I was flung into the air. "Oi!" Ignoring my annoyed shout, he cracked his knuckles and started chasing behind me who had decided to go forwards, towards the city. As I flew pass our peaceful town, many townsfolk looked up and gave a little smile. When we were first rescued, we came to the small area Faren had secured for his Wife, settling down in their house as nightmares plagued both of us. I remember how the first week was complete hell, Todd would wake up in cold sweat, his eyes burning with hate while I had terrible dreams of a ruined country, men eaten alive as others preyed on each other. Humans and monsters had both lost their humanity, humans too scared to spare consideration to others while monsters too mad to stop. At that time, I was devoid of memories, only knowledge, and perhaps my brain was only trying to fill my empty memory storage, it gave me vivid dreams. Thinking back, when we ate meat, he even vomited after finding out that it was from red eyes, we were eating evolved human meat. Until now, there has been people abstaining from eating meat, their minds filled with fear as they thought about how any meat they consume came from, or was a human. Luckily, there was another alternative, though it''s rarer and significantly less delicious then beast meat, there was the animals we reared before the apocalypse. It was extremely rare to find such stores and the price was similarly extremely high, being that rarely any livestock was saved from the apocalypse. Either you eat the meat you find in the forests, or you eat vegetables and fruits. One more interesting thing that happened was also the mutation of the plants, some brand new plants had emerged during the apocalypse, and after trial and error, we managed to procure many sources of food and find interesting uses of them. The most famous one being the Wether pills, originating from the herd we come to call the Wether Plant, it is dried, crushed and made into pills. And as for its purpose¡ª "Are you on it?" "No." "Then, before you enter the city, please eat the pills." A security guard at the entrance of the city called out. We had been Travelling for two days, hunting casually as we went, though we failed to meet any red or pinks. "Identity card?" He asked, taking out slips of paper to document our arrival. Passing him our cards, we were quickly given five pills, two for me and three for Todd. Swallowing it with water provided by the guard, I received our cards back and passed the entrance. And within seconds, the similar numbing feeling came over us. The Wether pills'' purpose was to numb our emotion. To stop any transformations. "Let''s go to the guild." He muttered, pushing amongst the crowd. This city only had about a hundred thousand citizens, while the rest where adventurers or people seeking permit to stay here. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The leaders here were a family as well, consisting of three children, a Wife and a Husband. Normally, the cities and towns are formed by families, as an individual would get challenged and defeated by a group. Only by sticking to family will one be able to sleep with their eyes closed, at this point, friends might even stab you in your sleep. The eldest child was about twenty, while the parents was in their early forties, all of them fit and able to deter possible challengers. Not only that, they also created legion of people willing to follow and protect them, by tightening the regulations regarding permanent residence, citizenship became a privilege to have and appreciate. The city was relatively tranquil, the humans living here peacefully cohabiting with the changed, though disputes used to happen, it was fine now. Walking over to the guild, the two of us looked around, the stores and houses roughly the same before winter. "Daggers made of fangs from poisonous snakes! Selling sets for only one pink coin!" A vendor shouted, competing in volume with the other sellers. "Cheap durable armors made from metal and leathers! Come and check out my goods!" Another shouted. It was an extremely lively street, with humans clamouring everywhere, children running around and adventurers dragging beast corpses around, shoring could be heard from every corner. As the day was still young, the Rays of the bright sun penetrating our vision, we entered the guild. Immediately as we entered, a wooden board came into our view as requests hung on it, from subjugations to escort, all kinds of jobs could be found. "What do you want?" I asked. "Hmm? A escort?" He casually mentioned, squinting at one of the papers pinned at the top right of the board. Ripping it off, he shook it in front of my face, "This looks fine, the town is only a week away, it seems to be small but the people there are all strong." "How''d you know?" I asked, scanning the contents. It was a request to escort a young lady, her parents and their servants to a town named Hedlis. "I got rumours Hedlis''s leader is crazy strong, a girl, a teenaged girl." He smirked, "Isn''t that amazing?" Certainly, it was. Hedlis was a town for only the strong, though it was dubious why this family was intending to head there, it was none of our concern. "Not only that, it''s worth four pinks." He smirked, "Anything we kill is ours to take." He added after a moment, shaking the paper in my face. Turning around abruptly, he walked to the counter and slammed the paper onto the table, taking out his identification card as he quickly exchanged a few sentences with the man at the counter. After a few more small talk, he turned around and walked towards me, "Done, let''s go eat lunch. We''re leaving tomorrow morning." From the moment we accepted the request, there was already men headed there to inform the family, and if there were no delays, normally we would leave the morning the day after. For lodging, it was conveniently provided by the guild, though it was small and cramped, adventurers without permanent housing could not be contacted if there was a discrepancy. Though there was an option to stay at an inn, it was free at the guild. "What do you want to eat?" He asked, asking for my opinion, strangely. "Erm¡­" Thrown off by his sudden question, I randomly answered, "Raw?" "Bah, boring, if we''re here, we should just go for something nice." He spoke, shooting down my opinion. Heaving a sigh of relief, I followed him, glancing at the stalls placed at the sides of the roads. Certainly, there were no working cars now, but it was somehow an unspoken rule that the middle of the road must be cleared for pedestrians. Suddenly, I noticed a proper shop in a building, with a sign that said [Limited stock of Magic Stones available here!] plastered on the display window that had been somehow kept in pristine condition since the apocalypse. Noticing how I stopped, perhaps by intuition or the lack of the sound of my footsteps, Todd turned around and glanced at where I was staring at. "You want that?" He asked with an incredulous tone. "No, I was just shocked to see it." I quickly dismissed. Certainly, it was rare to suddenly see magic stones for sale, considering that it grew mostly on humans. Of course, there were exceptions where it grew on the changed or beasts, but considering how rare it was to find it on beasts, to even have limited stock instead of one, it must''ve been either an extremely lucky hunter or a extremely evil one. Magic stones were a tool that anyone could use to procure magic. An incredibly useful item for normal humans. "Then let''s go." He said, grabbing my wrist and walking forwards, "I remember there was a steakhouse around here¡­" He muttered, looking around interest. Quickly, locating his favourite store he frequented every time he was here, he entered with smiles from the employees. "One Super Large steak and a¡­medium steak for you?" The waitress asked, "Medium rare for both?" Nodding, I turned to Todd, seeing if he wanted to change anything. "Add more spices on mine." He spoke, staring out of the window absentmindedly. Chapter 8 Pro tip: How to create names 1) Smash your hand on your keyboard 2) Type a letter and let auto correct finish it ......I''m sorry. ---------------- The next day morning, the two of us had just checked out of our Inn and now we were at the east entrance of the city, waiting for our contractors. "You must be Ana and Todd?" A fat, short man asked, his eyes scanning our bodies with caution. "And you are......the Jastes family?" Todd asked, similarly appraising them as he looked at the carriage behind the man and the two pair of eyes at peeked at us. Nodding, the man turned around and glanced at his family, "Indeed, the ones in the carriage are my wife and daughter, let''s have a pleasant journey together." He finalised, turning back at us. Pulling the carriage was a horse beast with diluted blood, it''s blood so mixed it was barely capable of being domesticated. It had a black, sleek body made of scales, and instead of hooves, it had heavily padded talons instead of claws. The carriage itself was made of wood and lined with metal at its corners, a flat roof on top and four big wheels at the bottom, held together by a small platform about 7 inches away from the Base of the bottom of the carriage, the platform holding their baggage. And with a whip, the man who had got onto the carriage''s front ordered the horse beast to run, with me sitting on the roof, thanks to my extraordinarily light body weight that I had, perhaps to fly I had sacrificed my weight, causing perhaps my bones to be hallow. Todd was the polar opposite, heavy and sturdy, he chased after the carriage with ease, sniffing the air from time to time. This journey was an estimated ten days of travelling for one trip, while returning would take another ten days, and as we were visiting a new town, perhaps a week or two would be spent there for leisure and shopping. Currently, we were passing through a forested area, the area littered with debris and silhouettes of demolished buildings, while the trees towered over us and all kinds of herbs covering the ground. Ever since the plant boom, a term we usedd in our town, where plants and trees grew at an impossible rate, the unpopulated areas where the growth rate was not controlled were all overrun by vegetation. And living in this area was multiple species, one of which we quickly met. It was rabbits the size of black bears, excluding the height of their ears. With black beady eyes and twitching noses, they quickly caught onto us with all the noise the carriage made. Thankfully, normal eyed herbivores were more peaceful in nature, and only some species would choose fight over flight, and noticing our approach they quickly leaped towards what could be assumed as their burrow. Of course, our purpose was to catch then for food, a task we had to do in our job. With a flap of my wings, I quickly went and caught one with ease, my soundless wings providing me with plenty of leisure. Grabbing the rabbit beast by its ears, my claws digging into the skin, I quickly took out my sword with my other hand and swung it towards its neck, cutting off its head. Throwing the body towards Todd, I made quick work of its four sharp teeth which could be sold to make weapons like daggers or used as arrow tips as well as its eyes, which hardened upon its removal. Turning around, Todd was retrieving the edible parts of the beast as he greedily ate some of the parts raw, keeping the rest in a container whilst the family waited in their carriage behind us. Quickly packing it, we swiftly left in case of predators who would come because of the smell of blood, we continued on our journey, the sun still hanging in the middle of the sky. Perhaps in another hour or so, it would be time for lunch, but definitely not now, right where we got a kill, we had to find somewhere with lesser beasts, a run down building if possible. Washing our hands and weapons with a large bottle Todd kept in his backpack, we continued walking, not bothering to harvest the plentiful herbs on the ground. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. None of us were capable of recognising what it was and what it did, there was simply no point. Just like that, the journey was quite peaceful throughout, thanks to the smell of Todd the predator, nothing much happened within the nine days we spent travelling, ourselves reaching Hedlis quicker than expected. One shocking thing was that the girl on the carriage was a human magic user, though she seemed far from capable from fighting, she was extremely timid yet her eyes carried incredible loathing for the changed. Reaching the town, we were met with countless well kept houses, the vegetation kept to a minimum, it was like the standard town, but there wasn''t a single wall. Walking in, we weren''t met with guards trying to shove Wetherby Pills down our throats, changed and humans walking around with weapons at their waists and backs, even small children carried them. Unlike other cities and towns, everyone looked ready to fight here. And even without a superb sense of smell, I could tell that not a single person here was to be trifled with, and judging by the look on Todd''s face, he could smell how dangerous the were. Dropping off the family and receiving payment, the two of us headed to a restaurant for dinner, only to be held back by a man in his late teens. With black wings and scales what went from his wrist to his shoulders, he seemed to be a chimera like me. He seemed to be quite shocked, though his eyes were small and seemed to be slanted in a smile, his words were full of surprise and caution. "Ashley? I thought it''ll take you another week to arrive?" Noticing the complete confusion on my face, he squinted his already small eyes. "You.....resetted?" He said, his tone almost accusing, yet a moment later, he furrowed his brow, "No, who are you?" From behind him, a girl emerged, similarly with wings, but this time with tails and ears of a panther. Her face painted with a childish smile, her blonde hair messy and her golden eyes darting around? "Thomas, what are you do- Ashley? It''s been a while." She said with a smile upon noticing my face. "She''s not Ashley." The man named Thomas said, pulling at my arm, "Come with me." "Let go of he-" "Who are you to order me around?" I snap, interrupting Todd as I snatched back my arm. Turning to Todd, I muttered, "Let''s go." This time, the girl grabbed my tail, "It''s a bit rude to leave first, isn''t it?" "And who are you?" I turned around, annoyed. "Mina, I''ll hold her, let''s go. " the man spoke, taking hold of my arm as he opened his wings, creating space amongst the crowded Street by pushing the other people away. "Oi, get off her." Todd spoke up, his lazy atmosphere disappearing in seconds. "Shut up." With a flap of her wings, the girl named Mina disappeared into the skies, only glancing back once before she did. With his hand still on my arm, he reached down and picked me up, but before he could leave, Todd grabbed hold of his arm. "Don''t ignore me, BASTARD!" He shouted as he threw a punch. Dodging the hit to his face, the man smirked, "Who are you to stop me?" "I''m her brother." As they glared at each other, I managed to get a punch onto Thomas, getting off from his carry. "You''re causing a scene," I said, looking at the gathered people, "I''m not leaving with you." "And what? You''re going to stay with a man that used your memory loss as a chance to be with you?" "Wait." I said as I turned around, "What do you mean?" "What I just said. This man isn''t your family. At all." He sneered at Todd as he turned to smile at me with a tilted head. "He''s an imposter." "Are you kidding me? To-todd, say something." I turned to Todd, slightly flustered, "What is he talking about?" But what I saw was a guilty and regretful expression, and on Thomas''s face was a cruelly cold one. Chapter 9 While I looked at Todd with disbelief, the surrounding crowd suddenly dispersed, moving away rather quickly as a name could be heard on their lips, "Zenna.". Looking up, there was a bunny eared girl above me, her body flying towards me with a threatening speed as her legs stretched and aimed at my head. Before I knew it, a painful throbe appeared on my head as it was pushed down, causing my body to hit the ground and my eyes to fail. I was easily knocked unconscious by the girl named Zenna, the leader of this town, Hedlis. In my unconsciousness, strange dreams came to me. I had dreamt of the life before the apocalypse, I was a student in a prestigious high school, I had lived a bland life of studying. It was like my life revolved around studying, I did not have friends, and my parents were virtually non existent, I lived in a large house that was filled to the brim with expensive furnitures, but was strangely empty feeling with the lack of sounds. But other than dreams of my student life, there was a rather unsettling one that seemed to be fiction. This time, I similarly lived in an empty space, but it was empty not only because I was along, it was devoid of anything. It was a plain white room, but at one of the walls, was a window. Through the window was a lot of children, they lived in a room as well, but unlike my room, which only had padding at the floors and walls, theirs were properly furnitured, it was the colour of blue and was decorated with beds, tables and toys. They lived very happily, they played a lot as well. But I was not. No matter how I screamed, they couldn''t hear me, they couldn''t see me. And eventually, I just gave up. That, was the dream that eventually woke we up from my dream. Was it reality? I don''t know, after all, my brain was used to creating fake delusions to compensate for my lack of memories. When I opened my eyes, a face appeared above mine, a face exactly similar to mine. In shock, I tried to recoil from the face that was obviously invading my personal space, but what my head smashed against was a pillow. I had been strapped onto a bed, my arms and legs tied so secularly that even my inhumane strength lost against it. "Do you remember anything?" She asked, her lips parting. In confusion, I scrutinized her appearance, she looked the same, she had the same pair or wings, the same tail, she was a mirror image of myself, but who was she? "Who are you?" I ask, dazed. Could it be, I was in another dream? In response to my question, she shrugged and her hands moved to remove my restrains. "I wonder, who are you? As well. " she asked in reply. Released, I rubbed my wrists which were red and sore, I was probably struggling in my sleep. The slight pain told me, this was reality. "Where am I?" "Our house." "Todd?" "Ah, he''s in another room." "I want to see him. " "Even though he lied to you?" "I want to know why." "...Alright. " she turned around and walked to the door, opening it.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Following her, I walked out of the bleak room that only had a bed adorning it, and into a well maintained hallway. Made of wood, the walls were decorated with paintings, it was beautifully taken care of. Walking past only a few rooms, we came to a room with a plate number, 13. Turning the knob, she had me enter before her, and who I saw on the ground was Todd. My restrains seemed to be rather kind now I had seen Todd, his wrists were tied together behind him and his legs were tied at the thighs and ankles. Even in his sleep, he seemed to be extremely uncomfortable as his head rested against the wall, in the middle of his brows a crease. He was frowning in his sleep. "Todd?" I mutter his name. Of course, he who usually slept deeply did not wake easily, only after a harsh kick from me, my small revenge, he woke up with a start. "Ana." "Is it true?" A small part of me wanted to believe him. But of course, my hopes were futile. "Yes." "Who was I?" He frowned even more as he replied after a long while of hesitation, "I don''t know." "What do you mean?!" I shouted in anger. "I can''t." "Why can''t you? " I asked. "It hurts, I don''t want to remember." he muttered softly, his pained eyes staring at me. "It''s unfair.....for you to forget it all, why can''t I forget it all as well?" he muttered again, looking down. "Even though I lost everything, you were the one to forget." he spoke once again, this time looking at back at me after a long while, his eyes slightly red. "Even if it''s a lie, can''t we be happy with it?" At the very end, my heart throbed. His words were too seductive. Those dreams, illusions I had, I was miserable. Even in this broken world, my life isn''t that bad, was it? I did smile more than I did in those dreams. If those dreams were my previous life, I''d......rather live this lie. Taking a deep breath, I spoke, "Then, let''s go back to the village." I easily bit through his restrains, releasing him with my heart still throbbing. "How long has it been?" "Two days." He replied, a murderous glint appearing in his eyes. Rubbing his red sore wrists, he smiled bitterly, "Shall we go?" Nodding, I stood up and walked to the door, opening it to see Ashley right outside as if she were waiting for me. "Where are you going?" "Home." "With him?" "Yes." "Even though he lied?" "Yes." "What about our past? " "I do not want to know." "But I want to." "And why should that concern me?" "Because you will be useful." At this point, our conversation was leading to nothing and was obviously endless, and as if sensing my distress, a voice appeared. "Shall we go eat?" It was Thomas, he had appeared at the hallway as well, leaning against the side of the wall. "Good. I''m starving." Todd spoke up, as if completely forgetting his objective. But I knew, it was the better choice, we hadn''t ate for two days, after all. Following Thomas, we went to the dining room at the first floor where three other people ate at. Two of them were Mina and Zenna, both of whom we had already met, the remaining person was a man with a lanky built, his hair hanging to his shoulders and his skin adorned with scales. At his back, was a pair of beige, feathered wings. His hair, wings, scales, eyes were of a similar colour, beige, it was just like his animal was a dragon. Ignoring the existence of everyone else, Todd took he seat two spaces next to the lanky man, taking a plate of food that was placed in the middle of the table. Following him, I also took a plate of food that was prepared for us and sat next to him. Just like that, the seven of us ate silently, only until our cutlery was on the table, did Thomas speak up. "As you know, we are looking to find the reason of our existence." he started with a smile. "What do you mean?" "We are not normal beings." he continued, "Have you heard of the 2018 Ayrshire Mine Disaster?" Before I could reply, todd had spoken up, "The incident whereas a mine collaspe killed over two hundred men? " "That is partially correct. However, the case of the collaspe and a majority of the deaths, is another disaster." He took a sip of his water, "The magic stones in our bodies, is incredibly useful, but when split open, it produces an explosion effect, releasing the mana it collects in large amounts into the atmosphere." "That''s..." I mutter. "Impossible? It''s just that you''ve never heard of it. That thing we produce, has an incredulously tough exterior that protects not only itself, but also us. It produces the new element in our earth, mana, which exists in the air in small amounts, and is liable for the changing and mutations." At this point, Todd and I was absorbed in his words, these were things we have never heard of before. "On 2018, what the Ayrshire mines have unearthed, was the earth''s first found creation of the Magic Ore. Unlike the magic stones, it does not have any outer layer, the moment it was unearthered, it released a huge wave of mana that instantly changed a miner, despite that the ore was only the size of a pea." Now, it was evident, what the case of death was. "Thay single pea sized ore was capable of doing so much." he muttered. "Then, the apocalypse....?" "No, it wasn''t that ore, it was a phenomenon that was bound to occur." "How does that......relate to our...existence?" "That ore started an experiment, our reason for existing came from that one incident. I can only remember bits and pieces of my childhood in that experiment, the same goes for everyone else. Our goal will be to return to the place we came from." "Is that so." I muttered, deep in thought before something struck me. Instead of focusing on my past, something about the ecistence of the ores struck me. The sudden increase in magic stones. That strange family that we escorted. "Where are the ores coming from, right now? " "Hmm? Kleane city." "How are we able to handle holding the ores?" "We have been exposed to the mana in the air for so long an immunity has been developed slowly. But the sizes of those mined ores are too small to cause anything." "Does the miners at Kleane know what they can do?" "No, they believe it to be the same as the Magic stones." The moment he replied to my question, a scary thought struck me. I had to return to the town, my home. Chapter 10 As if understanding the reason for my fear, Todd jumped up as well. The town we lived in was the closest to Kleane, which meant that if Kleane were to fall to disaster, our town would suffer as well. Furthermore, we had just requested our forces to lead a group of beasts there. In that instant, cold sweat broke out from our foreheads as I asked, "Where are my things?" I needed my equipment, if I didn''t want to die. "What''s wrong?" Ashley asked. "Does it concern you?" I replied, my brain still panicking. "If I can help, I will." She replied with a smile. "My town, it''s next to Kleane, if they are mining that ore......" And as I thought, the table of people instantly understood what I was conveying. Everyone quickly stood up, and with one of the servants coming to clean the table, Thomas lead us to their weaponry storage. Just at the entrance of the storage was our items, but what had our attention was the things placed carefully in the room. No doubt, the weapons here were top notch. Regardless, I wore my leather armour and sword sheaths, despite my occasional glance at the five of them picking out their weapons. "You can have one, if you want." Ashley spoke with a smile, "It''s just that Jovan has a habit of making too many weapons." It was easy to guess that the scaled man carefully picking out his weapon was Jovan, he had an intense amount of concentration as he looked at everything in the storeroom with pride. Hesitating slightly, I went forward to one of the shelves, it was full of dual blades. But what caught my sight was a plain bluesteel pair of swords. In the state of our world, instead of picking the most beautifully decorated sword for decoration, the most effective and powerful one was chosen. Many of the weapons here was embedded with a magic stone, and the swords I looked at also had one. Picking them up, it felt as though they were perfectly molded for me, the way my fingers were situated on the handle was flawless. Swinging it around, I could not help but sigh, these swords were perfectly crafted. But this was no time to marvel at the perfection of Jovan''s crafts, I shealthed the weapon and glanced at Jovan in gratitude. With a laugh, he picked his own weapons as well, the only one left with trouble deciding was Todd. Should he take a weapon, or not? But this was no time to dawdle, a good weapon can mean everything in a fight, and with creased brows, he walked to the racks where the axes were positioned, and with little hesitation, he picked a red, double edged axe. Fixing it on his back, he turned to the door, muttering a single word, "Thanks." Just like that, we walked out of their house, a mansion, together and headed towards the direction of the town. However, there was a question I had to ask, "What about the house, won''t it be raised?" "Nah, we have one more of us that will be going to the house, you''ll meet him soon." Mina spoke mysteriously with a wink. The five of us flew in the air, just above the treetops while Todd ran from behind, with our speed, it would take a week, at least. On foot, Hedlis was a week away from Bariso and Bariso was a five day trip away from our town. Within the first day, we had set off at about 11 am in the morning, and despite the weight of the matter, we still had to make a stop at 3pm. Even as changed humans, it was impossible to ignore our need to eat, thirst and rest, more so for Todd who had to chase after us. Bears are actually rather fast, but unlike us, who could fly unobstructedly by anything other than the wind, he had to rush though uneven grounds, beasts, protruding roots and hanging branches.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Thankfully, Ashely who used a bow made of beast tendons, managed to snipe the beasts harassing Todd, and increase our speed. Only at 3, did we all get a chance to rest. Resting on a branch, Zenna fiddled with her chain and sickle, with her powerful legs, she easily maneuvered around and could toy around with enemies by either binding them or pull them around by embedding the sickle into their flesh. Not only that, when she pulled the beasts to her, she also replied on hand to hand combat, her powerful legs capable of kicking off the arm of a small beast. Thomas used a more......strange way to fight. As a buck, he carried large horns capable of pushing enemies away with ease, and with that strength in mind, he stood at the front lines with a shield and broad sword. Mina used gauntlets with protruding claws to rip the opponent apart, relying on speed and strength, her flexible body allowing her to twist and turn in response to the enemy attacks as her long arms attacked. Jovan relied on throwing weapons like daggers, shurikens, etc. It was rather fitting as well, since he crafted weapons so easily. It was no wonder his pants was identical to the pants of the military company uniform, with countless pockets. As much as we could, we tried our best to avoid any fights. Sighing, I leaned against the trunk of the tree, sitting on the ground as I tilted my head backwards to drink from my canteen and eat the jerky I prepared beforehand. Next to me was Ashley, who happily partook in my snacking session. "Why are you so hell bent on learning about your past?" I asked, finishing my jerky. "Because......it feels unfair?" she muttered, "Feels like I live on this earth, just to combat the apocalypse." "What do you mean? " "This......apocalypse was predicted to happen, we are children made that will survive the new changes. But, that not it, they did so much to us, the reset, everything." "Reset?" "Ah, you know how you lost your memories? It''s called resetting, it occurs whenever our emotions get the better of ourselves, our brain has the conditioned response to wash clean our mind and let us keep on living." "Isn''t......that for the best?" "I wonder? I want to know everything, what this body of mine don''t have, what it has been robbed of." "Then, after all that, what next?" "I don''t know." she looked at me finally, a bitter expression appearing on her face. After that, the was nothing else to talk about between us, and with silence amongst the six of us, we started moving yet again after half an hour of rest. The rest of the day was uneventful, at night, we simply hunted for a while and ate, before sleeping. It was decided that we would rest for six hours, the six of us rotating shifts every hour. In the next morning, we easily continued our travels, since we were using a popular route, it was marked out with the grassless road. It was a route created through trial and error, it was perfectly situated between the edges of two predator territories. And so, we thought it would go on like that, but on the fifth day of our travels, a day after we had passed Bariso, we met with a changedmerchant with green skin. He had ran to us with a frantic expression, his body covered in blood. "Help me!" He screamed. "What''s wrong?" Todd who noticed him first, since he travelled on the ground, asked. "I trade with magic crystals from Kleane, the crystals I bought from them, caused my changed slave to transform!" He screamed. "Slave?" Todd asked. Originally, we were planning on descending but seeing as this man had a changed slave, he definitely came from Kleane, but what was strange was that he was a changed human as well. "Yes!" He shouted, before looking around, realising that he was too loud, and this time, he spoke softer, "I may look like this now, but until today I was a human magic user! That beast man in charge of carrying my crystals transformed and killed my men! All of them! Then I became like this!" he blamed the changed slave non stop, not knowing that Todd was changed as well, but Todd who had brown hair seemed like a normal human. "Please help me to go back to Kleane! I will compensate you!" seeing how Todd was travelling alone, his terrified mind was too numb to think carefully and assumed Todd to me a powerful magic user that knew his way around here. "I am a rich businessmen, I can-" before he could finish, an arrow easily pierced his brain as Ashley who was a distance away from me spoke, "It seems like we need to go even faster now." Looking down at Todd, I flashed a worried expression before we immediately continued moving, at a much faster speed. Following the scent of the merchant, we located where his crystals, no, ores were. The aforementioned slave was nowhere to be seen while a bag the size of an apple filled ores were lying on the ground. Descending, Jovan picked the bag up with a smile. "Ah, won''t you-" "It''s fine, we have a stronger immunity to these ores than regular people." He said with a laugh before throwing the crystals into one of his pockets. Afterwards, we sped to our destination. A trip of two days was shortened to one as we rushed, but what greeted us was not the community me and Todd had painstakingly protected, but an empty shell of a town. Charging towards the houses, he was slightly relieved, it was obvious that the townsfolk had left. But even so, there was no guarentee that they were safe. "The town the old man wanted to combine with!" Todd shouted. "Where is that?" Thomas asked. North, two days away." He replied, the distances were always measured in human speed. "What about Kleane?" "West, three days away. " "We go to Kleane first, understand the situation." Thomas decided. "Wha-" "Your town should be rather strong considering that it just merged with another town, and even if they were under attack, your single presence meant nothing." He replied with a cold glint in his eyes, "Listen to me and go to Kleane first, we will help you with your town." Unable to refute his points, Todd could only agree and follow them to Kleane. But when we reached the prosperous city called Kleane, we met with a horrible, horrible sight. It was, dinosaurs. Chapter 11 It was terrifying. Creatures that should''ve disappeared off the face of earth, was now prowling the ruins of a city. Of course, amongst the hundreds of thousand of residence in the city, there was only a handful of transformed dinosaurs. One of them, a nine meter, feathered dinosaur was viciously eating everyone in sight, was particularly eye catching. It easily ignored the magic casted it''s way, the fireballs landing on his body ignored and the ice cast at its feet aimed to bind it was easily kicked apart. No doubt, it was an apex predator. It easily chomped at anyone at its way, biting down with little hesitation before throwing the corspe away with a flick of its neck, aiming at its next enemy. The dinosaurs were all at the west part of the city, near the mine. In shock, we gaped as Rai shouted downwards, "Todd, go to your town!" No doubt, if Todd were to stay here, on the ground, he would be attacked. With a nod, todd immediately turned and ran despite his fatigue from travelling all day. Looking at his silhoutte becoming smaller and smaller, I sighed once and turned to look at Ashley, who was drawing the bow and aiming. In an instant, she sent an arrow towards one of the dinosaurs, but it couldn''t cut too deep, even despite the fact that the arrow had gained momentum from flying downwards, it only pierced 1/4 of the dinosaur''s head. With the sudden assault, the dinosaur immediately looked up where the arrow came from and shrieked, it''s short front claws waving in anger as it turned it''s attention back to the humans on the ground, going on its last rampage. However, it the shriek of his, everyone glanced up, including the dinosaurs, our presence was revealed. And immediately, screams imploring for help were heard, people were begging us to take them away. But seeing this, Mina couldn''t help but laugh. The ones combating the dinosaurs were all changed humans slaves, to think they would be so reliant on the changed despite their hatred for them. Pushing Ashley''s bow to the side with her palm, Mina stayed in the air with an interested glint flashing in her eyes. Seeing how none of them were to do anything, I spoke up, "Im going to my town." Turning, I left without hesitation, hopefully, the town was fine. Even so, I knew it would take at least two days to reach, the town had situated itself away from Kleane when it first appeared, since Kleane was an infamous city that hunted the changed. Hopefully, Todd would reach before me. Suppressing the fear in my heart, I could only hope. The town wasn''t weak, they were all hunters and knew they way with fights, I knew my panicking would be useless, if they fell to a monster, then my presence would mean nothing. After all, any enemy who could take down a collective fighting force of four hundred hunters, could easily take me down as well. Taking a deep breath, I flapped my wings once again, increasing my speed as I rushed there. Thankfully, after two days of rushing with minimal rest, I met with a safe town. When I had reached, it was the evening of the second day, Todd had already gathered the townsfolk, who were now packing their items. For me to reach in two days meant that any beast who wished to come, could do the same. Descending to the ground, I met with Todd, who was arguing with the leader of the other town, whos animal was a honey badger. They stood at the entrance of the town, while everyone else ran around the town, helping others to pack.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Despite his small build, he was heavily muscled and could fight extremely viciously, as of now, he was gripping the leather armour of Todd with his claws, his face filled with anger. "Ten of my best men died in that attack, the one that your town had requested us to do." Undoubtedly, he was referring to the mission of luring the deer herd to Kleane. "There''s no point in arguing! " I gripped his wrist and tried to jerk it away, "We need to go?" "How!?" he said, frustrated, "The elderly, the young children!" weaving his fingers in his hair, he looked extremely haggard. "Even so, the chaos of the city will reach us eventually, we should move to Bariso." I spoke calmly. Hearing my words, he sighed, "That is our destination, however, what will happen next? We have a population of five hundred over, taking us in is no easy feat." "Then we keep moving, to Hedlis." "Are you insane? The hunters can handle it, but everyone else!" "Its for the best, we can only try our best." It was our only option, staying here meant danger, at least by moving could we avoid the chaos of the city. Furrowing his brows, he sighed and nodded, not forgetting to ruffle his hair once more before he turned, shouting towards the town, "WE LEAVE NOW." With his bellow resonating through the town, everyone immediately reacted and moved to the entrance. "Agility type hunters, focus on scouting, all of you move in front of the group in pairs or threes, plan a safe route. Defense oriented hunters, equip shields from the storehouse, surround the group. Behind the layer of defense, melee fighters, position yourselves, long range fighters, stay in the middle along with those that cannot fight!" He immediately barked out orders as he equipped a shield himself, "Get into position!" Quickly, everyone moved collectively and gathered together, Todd moving to equip a shield he was given while I flew forwards. When we left off, it was already 9pm, a dangerous timing. Thankfully, some changed humans were nocturnal, but that also meant that there were nocturnal beasts lurking in the night. It was imperative for people to scout forwards, to avoid any beasts coming their way. Flying up above the tree tops, I could see the faint sight of fire in a long distance away, thankfully, Bariso was in the opposite direction of Kleane. Even all the way to midnight, the group moved nonstop, many of the invalids who couldn''t fight were tired, but they knew it was no time to complain. Most of them did not know what was going in, the chaos in Kleane, and the new type of beasts, but seeing how the frantic their leaders were, they could only follow along and pray for their own safety. Only after an entire night''s worth of walking did we get to rest, the invalids given five hours to rest while the hunters given four. Those incapable of fighting, amounted to the number of a hundred and fifty seven, fifty three of them belonging to our old town. In our town which took in mostly children, they were simply too young, but even so, they kept up with the travelling thanks to their youth. However, the invalids of the other town, they were the elderly and weak. But it wasn''t that our town would abandon the consolidation agreement, it was set in stone now. Thankfully the other town had two hundred able bodied fighters, which made up for the problems their invalids brought. After the rest, we continued onwards, this would be an incredibly slow trip. Sighing, I could only move faster than anyone else, being the only one here capable of flight, I had to contribute as much as I could. Just like that, we reached Bariso after six days, and thankfully, at the entrance of the town, we were accepted quarantine. After all, the city did not have sufficient Wether pills. The meaning of the word, Wether, was ''castrated goat'' . Its purpose was to calm us all down, lest we transform in the middle of the city in agitation. However, what the city did not know now, was that there was another way one could transform, and that method was the magic crystals. The moment the group was led to quarantine, old man Faren, the leader of the other town, Gillas, me and Todd went to meet with the leader of the town. The ones with met with us was the father of the family as well as his second son, the two of them imposingly looking at us. We were led to a pseudo meeting room with barely any decorations, the wooden floor and beige walls empty, the room only holding a large circular table and chairs. "Kleane is under attack right now." Gillas jumped straight to the point. "What? How?" a perturbed expression appeared on the second son. "The new magic crystals, the ones Kleane has been mining, they have been causing people exposed to them to transform." "Even so, it is a city of magic users, they should be fine." The man spoke calmly. "There are new types of changed, this time, it''s dinosaurs." Todd spoke up. "And how, should I trust you?" "With the intuition of a leader." Hearing Faren''s words, that man immediately nodded, "We will immediately prepare a force to counter the new beasts, but your group will still be quarantined." Turning to his son, he spoke, "Gather troop 2, dispose of the Magic stones immediately." With words fitting of his stern appearance, he swiftly made a decision. "It has been a long journey for all of you, please return and rest." He spoke, "But remember, to earn your place in this city, you must fight with us." Right now, it was rather late already, despite reaching the city at noon, we had to endure a series of processing and procedures. "Noted." Faren spoke before he stood up from the table. Returning to one of the houses I was allocated with seven other people, I sat at the dining table of the house instead of returning to the room I shared with another woman. Because of the lack of housing, many people had to sleep together on a single bed, or couch or even on the ground, but no one could complain, at the very least, they had a shelter over their head after six days of travelling in the wild. Resting my head against the table, I closed my eyes as I couldn''t help but wonder about the safety of the four other fellows who I had parted with at Kleane. But before I could fall asleep, the door to the house was opened, and my mirror image, Ashley greeted me with a smile, "Morning!"