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Rebecca ran down the hall, holding onto her injured arm in an attempt to stop the bleeding, as a pair of hunters rushed after her in hot pursuit. She’d managed to stay ahead of them so far, but they weren’t giving up and she wasn’t sure how much farther she could keep going. Turning a corner she opened the first door she came to, hoping that there was nothing worse waiting for her on the other side.
Luck was with her and the room was empty, buying her the time she needed to bandage her arm. The hunters were following the smell of blood, she was sure of it. How else would they have managed to keep finding her after she’d been so sure she’d lost them?
Bandaging her injury was a start, but she needed to do more.
Hearing the hunters hissing and growling as they drew near to her hiding spot she looked around frantically and saw a closet.
Hurrying inside she rummaged through her pack, hoping to find an herb or something else she could use.
Instead she found something even better, a First Aid Spray that she’d found back in one of the labs at the training facility. It was old looking, covered in dust, but as far as she knew they didn’t expire. As she shook it she noted that the label was different, a darker shade of green and there seemed to be some fine print on the back, but it was too dark in the closet for her to read it. The most she could see was bold red print along the top of the canister, ‘First Aid Spray Formula H’. That seemed redundant because as far as she knew all First Aid Sprays used herbs in them.
The label didn’t matter though, as long as it worked.
Spraying it on her arm she felt the almost painful chill of the propellant followed by the tingle of the medicine going to work. In a matter of seconds the bleeding sopped and a heavy scab formed over the injury. That was good, without the smell of blood to follow the hunters would give up and she’d be able to get away.
She was just about to open the closet door when she heard claws scraping against the door to the room. In her haste she hadn’t checked to see if it was locked and when she’d slammed it shut it must have bounced back a bit, just enough for one of the hunters to hook its claws in and pull it open.
The pair of reptilian mutants shuffled into the room and began to sniff around, looking for her no doubt, but they didn’t seem to be in any hurry to get over to the closet, which meant that she was probably right about the blood.
Hardly daring to breathe for fear of making a sound, she scratched at her arm, the healing injury starting to itch. Under her fingernails the edges of the scab started to flake away and she forced herself to stop. The last thing she needed was to reopen the wound and have it start bleeding again. If that happened the hunters were sure to smell it and she’d be doomed.
Outside the closet she could hear the hunters continuing to search the room.
Her hiding spot could only keep her safe for so long and she knew she had to do something.
Out of ammo, she couldn’t hope to fight her way out, but there was always a chance that there was something she was missing. From what she’d seen so far every building she’d found herself in was full of hidden doors and secret passages. The closet she was in was fairly large and while she doubted that she’d be so lucky as to find a trap door that would bring her to safety there was no telling what surprises there might be.
Carefully she felt along the walls and found a switch.
Was it really going to be that easy?
Crossing her fingers she flipped it.
The lights came on.
Of course.
Why had she expected anything else?
Fighting back tears of frustration she rubbed at the scab on her arm and felt it fall away. Underneath her skin felt strange, rough and leathery to the touch.
Maybe the spray was expired?
Expecting to see an ugly scar she looked at her arm and wasn’t at all surprised by what she found there. The injury was healed, mostly, a lumpy looking scar covering where it had been. Pressing against it she could feel the hard, shiny bumps move slightly, almost like there was something trapped beneath her skin.
Had she not cleaned the wound properly and debris had ended up trapped beneath her skin as it healed? It didn’t hurt though and it didn’t feel like there was anything under her skin. The bumps felt more like they were part of it, or maybe on top. She rubbed at the side of one and could feel a distinct edge to it.
They moved when she moved her arm, sliding with her skin, no pulling, no discomfort.
Her examinations came to a halt when she stretched her fingers and her knuckles cracked with a series of pops that were loud enough she was sure the hunters heard.
Freezing, she listened, but neither of the hunters seemed to be coming any closer. Instead they seemed content to sniff around where she’d stopped to bandage her arm, no doubt sniffing at the few drops of blood that had fallen to the carpet. Yes, that was it, she could actually hear one snuffling noisily and scraping at the floor with its claws.
Another series of cracks sounded as the muscles of her hand tensed.
Something was wrong.
She looked at her hand, stared in disbelief as her nails grew thicker and began to curve into claws. Bones cracked and tendons twitched as her fingers, all save the last one, began to thicken and grow longer.
What was happening to her? She’d treated the injury, infection was impossible, wasn’t it?
Not quite believing what she was seeing she took her mutating hand in her normal one, felt her skin growing rough and pebbly, her little finger shrinking, even as the others continued to grow, fusing with her palm and then vanishing entirely leaving her with four claws.
There was something familiar about the way her hand looked.
As her skin began to darken, the bumps on it hardening into heavy, green scales she realized what it looked like, the talon of a hunter.
Sure enough, the scar on her arm had changed as well, darkening into glossy scales that were spreading up and down her arm.
With her still human left hand she reached for the First Aid Spray she’d used. In the light she was able to read what she hadn’t been able to when she’d first used it, a warning that if she’d read would have stopped her from using it in the first place. The ‘H’ wasn’t for ‘herb’, it was for ‘hunter’, the spray had been meant for laboratory specimens, to treat them if they were injured during testing. The fine print made it clear that the spray wasn’t intended for human use.
Beneath the scales the muscles of her arm budged and stretched as her bones elongated to inhuman proportions. Cracking and popping, it grew and shifted until it was long enough that the tips of her claws went down past her knees, the weight of her mutated limb making it difficult for her to stand straight.
She could feel scales snag against her sleeve and the changes continued to spread, the thin fabric of her shirt stretching and then tearing as her expanding muscles burst the seams. The straps of her bulletproof vest dug into her as her shoulders and chest widened and she struggled to undo them with her mismatched arms, gasping for breath as it grew tighter around her thickening neck. Her choker fell away, twin rows of serrated scales running down her neck cutting through it.
The hunters outside heard that. She could hear them freeze and then start slowly approaching her hiding spot, growling softly.
Her own ragged gasps of pain and fear grew harsh and animal, deepening into heavy panting as her head was forced forward, her neck vanishing into the heavy muscles of her shoulders and back.
Scales continued to spread up her neck, growing over her face, leaving the skin there stiff and heavy feeling. When the scales grew under her hair it itched horribly and she scratched at it with her still mostly normal left hand. Growing talons caught in her hair, pulling it away in clumps. She stared at the handful of hair, saw the skin of her hand starting grow rough and darken as scales grew in. More hair was falling away, down across her face and she snorted and shook her head. A cloud of fine brown strands surrounded her as her hair continued to fall out.
Her increasingly top heavy build caused her to stumble. Falling forward she caught herself with her right arm, watched as her left arm finished changing to match.
“No,” she whimpered, her voice an unrecognizable rasp, “Please no. Not this.”
Her sobs of fear became growls as her mouth stretched wider, pulling into a snarl as her teeth growing into long, sharp fangs.
The bones of her spine cracked, settling into place and making her hunched posture permanent.
Her claws scraped against the floor as she awkwardly turned around to face the door.
One of the hunters pawed at it, sniffing curiously.
She had to stay quiet, absolutely silent.
Her knees popped, the noise like twin gunshots in the confines of the closet and standing became easier for her as her legs thickened and shifted.
Outside the hunters growled, one of them pounded at the door, claws splintering wood.
She backed away, her back bumping into the far wall of the closet as she panted and growled with fear and discomfort.
Now her belt and the waistband of her pants started to become painfully tight and she fumbled with her claws to undo them, but her claws kept getting in the way and her fingers weren’t nimble enough anymore. In the end she had to settle for hooking her claws in and tearing them free, the noise driving the hunters on the other side of the door to continue attacking.
They could hear her and smell her, they knew that prey was near and they were determined to get to her.
She crouched low, as though she could hope to hide from them.
Maybe she could try to run from them, push something down onto them when they burst into the closet and then hurry past them.
Inside her boots she could feel her feet changing, her toes cramping painfully as growing claws were squeezed.
She wasn’t going to be able to run, not like that. Struggling to lift her feet without overbalancing herself, she pulled at the laces of her boots as the claws tipping her three, reptilian toes burst free. In the end she had to settle for kicking off the tattered remains of her boots, her toes spreading wide and helping her balance.
Grabbing her belt and the pouches attached to it off the floor she put her talons against a stack of boxes and got ready to run.
The door splintered and the first hunter burst in, bulling headlong into her and knocking her sprawling on her back. Its breath was hot and rancid in her face, its thick claws tearing at her tattered pants and scraping harmlessly against her scales.
The second grabbed her pant leg and started pulling, dragging her out of the closet.
She tried to kick it away, her clawed toes impacting its scaled hide with a heavy thud.
It snorted and shook its head, giving one last tug at her pant leg before the fabric ripped and it stumbled back.
The first hunter continued to claw at her, trying to grab the belt out of her hand.
“No!” she shouted, or at least she tried to. The single syllable escaped from between her fangs as a deep growl. Teeth scraped against her hand as the hunter gave up on grabbing and started trying to bite.
Growling again, this time not even trying to form words, she shoved it away and was surprised when it actually stumbled back.
It made another lunge at her belt, but she pulled it against her chest and wrapped her arm protectively around it.
The hunter growled at her and then rolled her out of the way with a single swipe of its claws so that it could sniff around the closet, growling and nosing at the shredded remains of her clothing.
Terrified she scrambled past it and got to her feet, shaking off the last tatters of her shirt and pants as she did so.
The pair of hunters ignored her, growling and sniffing around in the closet. One of them bit into her bulletproof vest and shook its head, worrying it like a dog with a rat.
“Hey! Stop!”
Except all that she could manage were a series of angry hisses
The hunter stopped, looked at her and hissed.
Great, now she’d done it. The hunter had been content to destroy her stuff, but now that she had its attention she was done for.
But instead of pouncing it let go of the vest and walked over to her, sniffing curiously at her face. A moment later the second hunter joined in, the pair of them sniffing her all over, occasionally pawing at the belt that she still held with one arm, but otherwise doing nothing that indicated any form of aggression towards her.
Slowly realization dawned on her. They’d been tracking her by scent, but she didn’t smell the same anymore, she smelled like one of them now because that was what she was, and she’d never seen hunters attack each other.
Their sniffing got more intense and for a moment she worried that she smelled different enough to them, human enough, that they were going to attack her anyway. Her transformation had left her larger than she had been, but she was still markedly smaller than either of the hunters and against the two of them she wouldn’t stand a chance.
Fangs brushed against the back of her neck, where the scales were the thickest, claws scratched at her legs and she stood there, frozen in terror, knowing that any move she made might provoke them to attack. Hot breath puffed against the side of her face as one of the hunters wrapped its claws around her arm.
Her gasp of fear came out as a sharp hiss.
The hunter blinked curiously at her, let out a deep rumbling growl and then licked the side of her face.
The second hunter continued to sniff her with growing enthusiasm. A little too much enthusiasm she realized as it began to excitedly sniff between her legs. Flinching away from the hunter holding her arm, she shoved the one sniffing her. It let out a hiss, but its aggression wasn’t aimed at her, rather its gaze locked on the other hunter, which responded with a hiss of its own.
Hissing progressed to growling and then standing up to their fullest height and posturing at each other, arms spread wide and claws ready. They began to circle, snarling and occasionally swiping at each other with their claws.
The two hunters were fighting.
Over her.
She didn’t like the implications of that at all.
Carefully she made her way across the room, unused to her new form. There was a window on the far side of the room and she went there, drew the curtains back to look at her reflection in the glass. She knew what she was going to see, but she had to look anyway.
The reptilian visage of a hunter started back at her, yellow eyes shining in the darkness.
Behind her one of the hunters let out a deep growl and the fighting began in earnest.
Quietly she shuffled over to the door, fumbling several times before she managed to grab the knob without her claws getting in the way. This time she pulled the door shut behind her and made sure that it stayed closed. Anything to buy her some time to get away.
It seemed like she was destined to spend the rest of the night running from hunters, albeit for a very different reason now that she was one.