Chapter 2

"Hi, I'm Hunter Neudeck." I said firmly. I didn't notice until I heard the door close, Shannon had left.

Laura looked at me and asked, "Is this what they are trying to do to us? Why?"

"I don't know why. But I'm pretty sure that this is what they were trying to accomplish." I said while inspecting myself.

"Okay." Laura sounded shy and scared. I needed a way to comfort her, but how? Locked up in here, a freak.

"What have they told you so far?" I asked her. I wanted to know what she knew.

"Nothing. I never asked." She replied. I should have seen that coming.

"Well, according to what I've been told, they're doing genetic experiments. Combining human and animal DNA. They combined mine with the genes of a feline." I looked up at the security camera, "They're always watching."

Laura looked up at it as well.  She suddenly flinched as a shudder ran through her body. I watched wondering what was happening. I saw fur starting to grow from her, faster than it did on me! It kept growing for a few seconds. Afterwards, she stood there looking at herself in awe. She had dark orange fur. I had seen the fur's colour and looks before, but where?

Laura looked up at me and stared in shock. I went up to her saying "It's okay, Laura." She staggered backwards onto the couch. She was sitting there looking at herself. I comfortingly sat down beside her.

I quickly inspected her more. She was apparently younger than me, about twenty. She had light green eyes, bright blonde hair and she was wearing clothes identical to mine.

"Hunter, have you ever thought about…escaping?" Laura said in a whispering tone. I looked straight at her, surprised by the question.  

"Yes…yes, I have. But it wouldn't be an easy reality." I responded uneasily. I didn't plan on escaping…any time soon, that is.

The day had passed, I was lying on one of the beds. Laura was on the other one, already asleep. I stared at her for a few minutes, then turned around and closed my eyes.

In front of me was a dead end. The guards were catching up. I gazed around frantically, looking for a way out. As I looked up, a medium-sized metal grate caught my eye. It was near a wall, above a few conveniently placed horizontal pipes. I quickly climbed up and pushed the grate open. I climbed in, closed it, and watched through it.

The group of guards were heavily armoured, carrying large assault rifles. I breathed deeply, I was safe, for now. I was on my hands and knees, tucked in the small ventilation shaft.  I turned around and saw it leading straight ahead of me. There was a hole in the bottom with light coming up from it.

I crawled foreword and looked down at the light coming up at the fan. It was a small office; there was someone inside, typing on a computer.  I felt a draft coming from further up the vent, carrying fresh air! I quickly scrambled forewords towards it.

Someone must have heard the noise, because I suddenly saw holed spring up on the bottom of the vent in front of me. I heard gunfire, they were trying to shoot me out! I quickly retreated back over the office. I took a glance down and saw that the guards were already in the room, pointing their guns up towards the vent.  

I gasped in shock as they opened fire. I moved backwards quickly as I saw the holes of light appearing, along with the deafening shots. I suddenly yelled in agony, I brought my hand up to my and tried shuffling backwards more until I was in the wall. I looked at my hand, t was bleeding badly, I had been shot. The pain throbbed through it as blood came oozing out. The scarlet red liquid lading on the vent's bottom.  As it dripped, some fell down into a hole that was from the small office.

  I heard a tough male voice say  "Yeah! look! We got 'em!"  I huddled up there, trapped.

"C'mon, let's check the vent then, shall we?" I heard another voice say. Check the vent!? Oh no! I thought. They would catch me, and surely kill me.  I put my hand down t push myself backwards; I winced as the pain in my hand increased.

As I moved back, I heard a creaking noise. I turned around to see nothing unusual. I suddenly felt a draft of cold air sweep over me, it was just the air conditioning.  I sighed with relief and continued to the grate where I entered. I tried using my one hand to open it, then climb down.

As soon as my feet touched the ground, everything swirled around me then went black. My eyes suddenly shot open, I saw the metal wall beside me- I as dreaming again. I turned around and flinched in surprise when I saw Laura standing in front of me.

Laura had changed more! I looked at her and saw that she now had a muzzle, and claws-like me. "You've been groaning all night, I can't get a good sleep with all your noise!" She sounded slightly grumpy, she probably was a light sleeper.
"Sorry, bad dreams, that's all." I replied.  I looked at my hand, it still hurt like it did in my dream. it was so real…too real.

"Okay, just try to keep it down, I want to get some rest." She explained while walking back towards her bed.  I looked up at the clock, I had only been sleeping for about two hours.

I closed my eyes once more, but no dream came.  I awoke the next morning to find my head to be mostly off the pillow that was beneath it the night before. But the bed was only about as long as me, and in that position my feet should have been partially off the edge; they weren't.

I shot up and instantly felt a cramp in my back. I sat off the side of the bed. my shirt and pants felt looser than normal. As I gazed around I quickly realized that Laura wad no longer with me. Where could she have been? I stood up, and suddenly felt a bit uneasy. I walked it off as I went over towards her bed. I saw her shoes lying on the ground.

The room was completely silent. Something was wrong. I gazed around, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary.  I walked towards the door and tried turning the long metal handle on it. It moved and clicked into place at a vertical angle.  The door slowly opened, the hallway on the other side was very dark, it had a few lights flickering. The floor and metal walls were destroyed and torn up. All over them was covered with scorch marks.  I smelled smoke, and I could hear distant screams echoing down the halls.

I cautiously stepped out. The hall was ominously dark and quiet. I started walking down the halls.  I eventually came across a large blown open door. Half of it was lying on the floor near me. I looked inside the room that the door was covering, it was pitch black.

As I ventured down a hallway to my left, I heard noises behind me. I quickly turned to see the long scorched hallway, but nothing else. What happened? I wondered.  I turned around and continued foreword, when I suddenly heard the noises again. I was being followed. I faced the direction I was heading again and started walking. I heard a creaking noise above me and I looked up. Only then did I realized the screaming had gone. I started to get more nervous, so I ran. As I was running, heard the footsteps of someone chasing close behind. I ran as fast as I could, but suddenly tripped over a long strand of wires stretched across the floor.

I put my hands out in front of me to catch my fall. I groaned in pain as pain pulsed through my left hand. I quickly whipped around to see someone, or something, coming down on me. I braced myself and closed my eyes to prepare for the hit. it didn't come.

I opened my  eyes to see that I was still in the room, with Laura in the bed across from mine. It was a dream, and that course of dreams was over, I hoped. When I looked up at the clock, it was the same time as it was in my dream.

I sat up slowly, then stood. I cautiously walked towards the door. Once I was in front of it, I grabbed the handle, and tried turning it. It didn't move. I sighed in relief and walked towards the couch. I sat down and looked back at the dream I had just had.

"Hunter?" I heard Laura say from her bed. I looked over at it for the first time that morning. I saw, to my surprise, Laura was much shorter. She sat up and stared at me. I was staring back at her too.

Just then, I figured the transformation was not done yet. I thought, would we turn fully into the creature we had been genetically altered with? Was that even possible? Before I had arrived at this place I didn't think what was happening now was possible.

"W-What's happening now?" Laura stuttered. I didn't know what to say. I just stared. After a few seconds Laura continued, "Should we think about escaping?"

The question didn't shock me, I was thinking the same thing. I took a deep breath and whispered, "Yes."

Laura nodded.

"But" I continued, "We would need a plan."

We discussed ideas and methods of escape, using what we knew. Our plan was to rush out once someone came to check us by opening the door. From there we would try to head up. If we got seen, then we would hide in a place like the ventilation shafts. One thing e didn't think about was what we would do once we reached the surface.

Every day, me and Laura were getting shorter and shorter. And I was getting more afraid.

Three days had past of planning, we knew what to do. It was noon when we heard someone twist the handle from the outside of the door. I looked at Laura, and she looked back at me. As the door opened, I nodded to her, and we both dashed foreword as fast as we could. I felt someone being pushed over from me running into them. I almost fell, but I kept my balance.

We were running as fast as we could, I kept looking forward, so I didn't know if Laura was still behind me. I started hearing voices of people closing in behind me. As I kept running, I stopped at a T-Intersection  I didn't know what way to go! I quickly, without thinking, took left. I gasped in horror as I saw a dead end. I turned around and could hear the yelling voices getting closer.

I gazed around quickly. I suddenly realized this was the same place from my first dream! I saw the pipes, and the grate to a ventilation shaft. I quickly climbed up and in. I looked down and saw the same looking security guards, carrying the same guns, looking around.

I shuffled backwards a little then turned around. I saw light coming up from another grate on the bottom of the shaft. When I looked through I saw a small office, the same one from my dream. I moved backwards a little and started to think.

The dream I had wasn't a dream, it was a premonition. I hoped I was wrong, I didn't want to get shot at.  

I moved forward again and passed the grate. I suddenly heard voices as guards flooded the room beneath me. They were going to heck the vent! And if it was anything like my dream, they would open fire. Just as I thought that, I saw bullet holes appear in the bottom of the vent, accompanied with the sound of gunfire. I backed away quickly and groaned in pain as a sharp pain pierced my left hand, or what was now more like a paw. I had been shot, just like in my dream. I escaped down though the opening that I got in through. Once I landed on the ground, I remember Laura. I couldn't see her anywhere, where was she? I saw a long hallway, with an end that had a large door in it. It was across from me, it was on the right side of the intersection. I sprinted across to it.

Once there, I saw that there were smaller doors along the sides, they all had windows in them. They all had a desk, chair, and some sort of control panel on them. I tried opening one of the doors, but it was locked. A few of them had people in them. I continued down the hallway hastily, until I reached the large door at the end. It was huge, about ten times as high as me. It was a dark metallic colour, with some black parts to it.

On one end I saw a panel with some buttons and a screen. I ran over to it and pressed a large green button. t made a loud beep noise, then the screen displayed "Please insert level d access card" I looked at the panel and saw a slot that looked like it would fit a credit card or something. I turned around to see, to my surprise, Dr.Skursky running towards me. I stood there staring at him.

As Dr.Skursky approached, I saw a kind expression on his face, but it was clearly fake. He looked more angry. He was about to say something when I suddenly heard yelling from down the hall. "There it is!" I heard someone say. The guards suddenly opened fire. Dr.Skursky turned around and opened his mouth to yell something. As soon as he did that, blood spurted out of the back of his head. the warm red liquid spattered on me and the wall behind me.

I stood, wide eyed, as Dr.Skursky fell down in front of me. Blood kept pouring out from his head onto the ground. I almost vomited. There was small chunks of his head around me.

The guards had stopped shooting, I thought one of them said, "Oh no! I Think we killed one of the doctors!"

I looked at Dr.Skursky again, and noticed a credit card sized card in his pocket. I cautiously bent down and grabbed it. I put it into the slot of the control panel and pressed the green button again. This time it beeped and the screen displayed "Access accepted. lease stay clear of the doors while they are opening."

As soon as the doors had opened a little, I ran through. I was in a large room, surrounded by what seemed to be generators and  fuse boxes.  Near the back I could see large fuel tanks, what could they have been for? I thought. I saw a sign near the two opening doors hat said "No weapon permitted in the generator room." Why? I wondered.

I quickly hid behind a large generator. the guard must have seen my tail, because they opened fire at me. I ran forwards, keeping my head down, towards a generator further back. As I was running I heard the sound of an electrical explosion. I turned to see sparks flying up from one of fuse boxes. Other fuse boxes around it started sparking and exploding, there was a large chain reaction of explosions. I gasped as one of the generators started sparking and exploded in a large, loud, mass of sparks.

I looked back at the fuel tanks, what would happen if they ignited? I didn't want to find out. I quickly ran past the dazed guards and out towards what looked like an elevator door. I pressed the button beside it to call for the elevator. The door instantly opened and I rushed in. It was very industrial looking. I pressed the button that was at the top. It had the letters "SA" on it.

The elevator started moving up, then stopped. I kept pressing the button but it didn't work. Suddenly, the lights sparked and went out. The elevator was pitch black, but I could see a little. Maybe being part cat was going to be useful. I heard alarms starting to go off outside. I needed to get out of the elevator. I looked up and saw a hatch out of it, there we also a ladder on the side leading up to it.

I quickly climbed up and out of the elevator. When I looked up, I saw a long haft. I hoped I wasn't too far from the bottom, in case the elevator fell.  As if my thought brought it up, the elevator suddenly jerked a little, then started falling. I yelled out in fear. I felt the elevator suddenly crash under me, but it didn't collapse in. I was lying on my back, I opened my eyes and noticed that I must have only fell one floor. I sighed in relief. I was at the bottom.

I climbed back down into the elevator and saw that the door was half open. I squeezed through and instantly remembered Laura. I hoped she was okay. The lights were off, but there was some emergency lights on. They shined red down the hallway in front of me.

I ran towards where my room was. Once I arrived, I opened the door to see that Laura was inside, sitting on her bed with her head drooping. The room was illuminated by a small emergency light.

I ran up to her and quietly said, "Laura?" Laura instantly looked up at me and gasped in relief.

"Hunter! I thought you were dead!" She exclaimed. "Are those alarms because of you?" She asked curiously.

"Sort of. Some guards shot the power..." I stopped as I suddenly remembered the fuel tanks. I quickly ran towards the door and shut it tight.

"Hunter?" Laura asked confused.

I turned to her and hastily said, "They shot the power generators by accident, there are large fuel containers in there! Everything is exploding. If the fuel catches of fire, this place will be filled with fire."

Laura stared, wide eyed and scared.

"We should be safe in here though." I said. I sat down on my bed and sighed. After a few seconds the room started to shake as if there was an earthquake, and it was followed by a large explosion sound. There was yelling and screams coming from the hallways, and I could feel the heat transferring through the door. Laura just stared ad me.

"Cover yourself with the blanket!" I said quickly, "In case the fire gets into the room." Laura did it, but I knew it wouldn't help, I just wanted to comfort her.

Still afraid of death, I lay down and closed my eyes, hoping that when I woke up It would all be over.

I opened my eyes to see that I saw still in the room when I went to sleep. The light was off now though. I got up and felt that I was shorter again, and my hands looked even more like paws. I twisted the handle on the door, I could feel there was no longer heat coming from the other side.

As the door opened I could smell smoke and fire, and another bad smell I had never smelled before. I ventured out into the hall. It was just like in my dream. All the walls and floors around me were brown and scorched. There was ashes all over the place and the occasional fire burned brightly, lighting the hall.

Another thing I saw made me feel sick. I saw the dead body of a doctor. Most of his flesh was burnt away, most of him was just a skeleton. It was that the terrible smell was coming from. I staggered backwards then turned around and took a deep breath. I continued down the hall, not knowing what to expect.

All along the way, everything was burned.  I noticed all the doors to cells, some of them similar to mine, were opened. What could have been inside them?I cautiously continued.  

        As I went, I could hear noises echoing behind me. There was the occasional crack or footstep behind me, I quickly turned around to see if anything was there every time.

It had been about five minutes, nothing special had happened so far. I suddenly heard the banging of metal, like when I was crawling in the vents, coming closer and closer. I faced the noise then started backing away. It was coming towards me fast. I turned around and started running.

I remembered my dream and looked down to see the same wires. I avoided them and kept running. I could still hear the sound coming closer.

I stopped stared ahead of me in dismay. I had ran into a dead end. I turned towards the noise, it was definitely coming from the ventilation shaft. I saw the grate close in front of me be broken off.

What I saw kept me frozen in shock. What looked like a giant green scaly lizard came down in front of me. It reared up on its hind legs and jumped on me. I put my arms out to shield me. I felt a weight bear down on me. It was almost larger than me, but definitely heavier. I struggled to push it off, but it kept pinning me down.

I saw it rear up then come down, scoring its claws along my chest. I yelled in pain as I saw blood ooze from the large gash. The giant lizard went up to strike again. I shut my eyes tight and braced for the next wave of pain.

I suddenly heard a gunshot, then a loud squealing sound coming from the lizard. It fell down onto me hard. As it landed on me, I coughed up blood. Was I going to die? It was hard to breathe, and I started to feel less and less conscious every second.  

As everything faded away around me I heard voices. One male, "What the hell is that thing?" and it was replied to by a female's voice, "Maybe one of the experiments. Let's bring it back to the medical sector…" I knew she was continuing her sentence, but I couldn't hear much anymore. I let my head fall to the side, and closed my eyes as I fell unconscious.

I heard a rhythmic beeping sound coming from nearby. I held my eye closed for a second before opening them. I saw a bland metal roof. I turned my head to the right and saw some sort of medical equipment. To the left of me was a heart rate monitor. There was an IV stuck into my wrist and there were bandages wrapped around my torso down, where I got cut.

I noticed that there must have be electricity in the room, maybe a backup generator?

I forgot about that and decided to see if anyone was there. "Hello?" I called out. No reply. I lay there waiting for a while. My chest was hurting a lot, but the pain was slowly ebbing away over time. I also noticed that I saw even shorter than before, and my hands were completely replaced with paws. I also had fully-grown whiskers.

I suddenly realized that before I was here, I probably looked like a tall cat walking on its hind legs. But animals have a different shaped bones in their legs, I could tell I wasn't like that, yet.

I closed my eyes and slept longer.
After a few minutes I woke up to the sound of voices. I had my eyes still shut "It's kind of cute when it's sleeping, poor thing got ripped up pretty bad." I heard a female voice say. It sounded the same as the voice back in the halls. I opened my eyes to see.

There was a tall man. He had dark brown semi-long hair. He was wearing a black long sleeved shirt with a short sleeve white and grey camouflage overshirt. He had basic light brown cargo pants.

The woman with him was simply wearing a blue sweater and dark blue jeans. She had blonde hair coming down into a long-hanging ponytail.

. The woman looked around the same age as me. The man seemed to be in his thirties.

"Derek, it's awake!" I heard the woman exclaim. Derek was the man's name.

Derek came closer and looked down at me.  "Can you speak?" He asked curiously.

I nodded while saying, "Yes"

"Who...or what, are you? One of the experiments here?"  The woman asked hastily.

"I'm Hunter Neudeck." I replied, "And yes, I am one of the experiments here." I finished coolly.

The woman came forward and said, "Hello, Hunter. I'm Jill, and this is Derek." Jill continued cautiously, "Erm…What are you?"

I breathed out deeply and said, "I don't know what to call myself. But I know that they mixed my DNA with a feline's. And I'm guessing I am completely turning into a cat, in case you haven't noticed." I continued by asking, "Are you a doctor here?"

"Yes. We were in this sector of rooms when we heard a loud explosion. The power was already out, so we closed the emergency blast doors separating us from the rest of the facility.  When we opened it everything was destroyed, and we came across you while exploring at just the right time." Derek explained, "This section of the facility contains the emergency escape routes. "

I thought about that, then suddenly remembered Laura. "How long has it been since you found me?" I asked quickly.

"About twelve hours. If you're planning on going anywhere, I wouldn't suggest it. Your wound needs to heal." Jill said calmly.

"But I need to find my friend. I left her back in the cell here I was being kept in! What if one of those monsters get her!?" I cried out desperately. Laura would be scared and lost without me, I needed to get to her.

"Give your wound a day or two to heal some more and you can go. You got cut pretty bad, you've lost a lot of blood." Added Derek quickly.

I spent the rest of the day talking to Jill and Derek. I told them how I got here and what they did to me. I told them about Laura too.

The next morning I woke up to the strange feeling  I got back in earlier stages of my transformation. I knew what was next. I could feel the shape of my body changing, not that it hadn't already a lot overnight. It felt uncomforting and painful as the bones inside me shifted around more  and the form of my body changed. I also noticed how much shorted I had gotten overnight. On the side, I felt like I knew something new, but I didn't know what it was. Once the change had stopped, I lay on my side breathing heavily.

The bandages that were wrapped around me were now lying limp on the bed. Luckily, Derek removed the IV the previous day. I still had the gash along my chest, but along with myself, it was smaller.

I realized that it was stitched together the day before, but now it was too loose.

But what concerned me the most out f everything, was that I now knew that I was fully transformed into a cat.Along with that, I felt I knew something more. Something different, Something new. What was it? A cat's instinct? Something else that people don't know of? I kept those questions to the back of my mind, right now, I needed to find Laura and get out of this place.
I shifted myself up onto my four paws. It felt strange, but natural all the same. I started to try and walk. Surprisingly, I almost instantly figured it out, like I already knew how to walk like this. But I could still tell there was more in my mind that came with this transformation.
I jumped down off the side of the bed, when I landed, pain shot through my body from where I was cut. I padded along towards the door of the room. It was closed. I would have to wait for Jill and Derek.
I moved more quickly towards the bed. I would have to jump up. I felt I know how, so I went with it. I bunched up my hind legs, and launched myself up and onto the bed. It came naturally, and I found it kind of fun to be jumping so high and far.
I started  heading towards the pillow on the bed , when I suddenly heard the door to the room opening. As expected, Jill walked in through the door. She was wearing different clothes.
I didn't hesitate to leave. "I need to go, now." I said while jumping down off the bed and pacing towards the door. It only surprised me a little that I could still speak.
Jill just stared at me. As I went past her, she started talking, "Hunter, wait. " I stopped and turned to her as she continued, "It's not safe out there.  We saw the creature that attacked you; there are more. They're all over the facility. You won't make it out alive without someone that can fight those things off!"

I was about to say something in reply when I suddenly heard footsteps. As they came closer, I recognized Derek coming into the room. He was wearing different clothes, like Jill.

"I see your transformation is complete?" He said questioningly.  Derek was looking down at me in awe.

"Erm..yeah." I replied slowly.

"Derek, hi!." Jill exclaimed, "I was just about to tell Hunter about our plan."

I looked up at Jill. A plan? To get out of here? Were they going to help?

Jill continued, "We all need to get out of here. And we'd be more effective travelling in a group. I know that on the surface there are multiple helicopters. That's how people get here, along with resources."

"So you're saying we need to get to the surface and get a helicopter?" I asked. It sounded good.

"Yes. And we should go soon. If there are other survivors, they're going to want to escape as well.

Derek nodded then walked out of the room. Jill then looked down at me and said "Come on, we'll get our weapons then go." Jill then walked out the door, and I followed her. We were walking down a hallway that looked like most of the rest of the facility except it was narrower and not scorched.

We came up to a metal door that was open. Derek was in the room behind it picking up a pistol and a pouch of ammo.  he handed them to Jill, who clipped the pouch to a belt ring on her pants.

Derek and Jill then started walking towards a large door with a keypad beside it. Derek put in a code and the door opened. Behind it was the scorched halls of the facility. We all stepped out into the ashes and started our ascent to the surface.

A short time had passed before we came across a strange creature. It was sort of like the one that attacked me earlier; a sort of giant green lizard, except this one was a little smaller. It was sniffing at a dead body.

While me and Jill stood still, Derek stepped forward a few steps and took his pistol out of a sheath he had on his pants. He aimed and took the shot. The lizard let out a high-pitched screech and fell over.

I suddenly heard screeches coming from behind us. we all turned around to see a large group of the lizard things, most of them different shapes and sizes, dashing towards us.

"Run!"  Jill yelled. her and Derek sprinted foreword as I ran out in front of them. The lizards were very fast and were catching up.

While running, Jill took out her pistol and aimed it behind her and started shooting. Not long after, Derek joined in. The deafening bags filled the air with the screeches of the dying monsters. I just kept pushing forward, not looking back until I reached a wall with two halls on either side of me.

I looked back to see Jill being pounced on. I heard her scream and try to shoot the lizard. The rest of them caught up and Derek started opening fire. I saw as the lizard was tearing Jill apart. I heard her screams of agony and Derek's yells of struggle to keep alive in the horde.

I stood watching, shocked. There was nothing I could do. The horde of lizards piled down on Jill. I suddenly felt a jolt of hope as soon as I saw Derek push his way out of the mass of lizards. He didn't have his gun anymore. He was running towards me.

The lizards seemed distracted by Jill, who's screams could still be heard. Once Derek reached me, he looked back at the lizards and said, "There was nothing I could do. we need to go." I could hear the horror and despair In his shaken voice.
After standing still for about a minute, Derek started leading on down the left hall. We soon came across a door to a stairwell. Derek opened the door and we both went inside. We then stated going up the stairs. When I looked up I saw that the surface was a long way up.

After climbing stairs for a few minutes, I saw the top was close. But the hope was drowned out by the sound of the lizards following again. I looked down the stairwell to see the horde following us up the stairs.

Derek must have seen too, because he started running. I started moving faster too, even though my body ached with fatigue.  We finally reached the top and quickly exited the stairwell. The top floor was not damaged by the inferno.

Derek and I looked around to see that everything was intact. There were about four people crowded around a spot adjacent from us. We slowly and quietly sneaked towards the entrance doors. One there, we slowly opened them and got outside.

I stared in awe. All I saw around us was ocean. We were on a large platform surrounded by ocean. I couldn't see any land.

I was distracted and didn't notice Derek starting to walk in a direction. I started following. We soon arrived in a large hangar with a bunch of helicopters. Derek looked down at me and said, "We're one step away from making it out of here." He quickly ran up to one of the helicopters and tried opening the door. "Locked!" He said frustrated.

I turned to see a female pilot walking towards the entrance to the hangar. "Someone's coming!" I whispered to Derek. It was too late, the pilot had already seen him. I quickly took cover under a helicopter.

"Hey? What are you doing? Trying to sneak out of here?" The pilot asked angrily.

"Um, I just saw someone come over here, so I followed him. And hanks to you, he got away!" Derek replied. he was lying.

"Well leave that to security! You're not authorized to be over here." She replied.

"Yes, ma'am. Derek started walking back towards the facility lobby, glancing back at me over his shoulder.

"What now?" I muttered.

The pilot opened a helicopter's door with a key then went inside. Just before she closed it, I ran in. She didn't notice me. I headed for the back of the helicopter.

As I waited there, I heard gunfire outside.  I hopped onto some emergency life jackets to see out the window. I saw Derek running towards the helicopter with a gun in his hand. He was being chased and shot at, but he kept running. The pilot got out hen Derek pointed the gun at her. He quickly got inside, closed the door, and started flicking buttons above him and on the dashboard in front of him.

I then heard the rotors of the helicopter starting to spin. We were being shot at. The helicopter started lifting off when I suddenly heard a loud bang and the sound of the helicopter powering down. It was then followed by an explosion. I braced myself as the helicopter started exploding with us inside. I closed my eyes shut and dug my claws into the padded wall. I felt the helicopter jerk upwards. I lost my balance and was flung up to the top of the helicopter, then I fell to the bottom. I felt a wave of heat and every went black.

I felt something soft like fur beside me. I opened my eyes to see the back of a helicopter's chair. I heard the rotors spinning and soft breathing coming from beside me. I turned my head and instantly jumped up in surprise.

Beside me was an orange fox, curled up an a ball sleeping. Could It be Laura!? I thought. Although that would have been extremely unlikely. That's when I noticed I had completely forgotten about her.

I tried not to disturb the fox as I made my way to the cockpit of the helicopter. I saw Derek.

"Derek!" I exclaimed in surprise. I looked out the front window and noticed we were flying over the ocean.

Derek turned his head to me. He had an excited expression on his face. "Hunter! You're awake!" he said. "We did it. We're out of there."

I was confused. "How? Didn't we get shot down?"

Derek replied calmly, "Yes, we did. But I managed to get us out of there by taking another helicopter and making a distraction. you were knocked out, so I had to carry you."

That didn't sound very likely, but it was the only thing I could believe at the moment. it didn't matter though, we were safe. But I had another question, "Who is that?" I pointed my tail towards the sleeping fox.

"You'll never believe it! I found your friend Laura! She made it to the surface herself by sneaking. I saw her and instantly thought about what you said. She turned out to be Laura so I got her to come too." Derek said.

It was almost too convenient to believe. I guess I was just really lucky. We all were. "How did you distract the guards?" I had to know the answer.

"The lizards chasing us came to the surface, and all hell broke loose." Derek replied.

"Where are we heading?"  I asked curiously.

"Look ahead of us, you can almost see Atlantic beach. I live around there. And I know where we can land." He said.

Atlantic Beach!? I live less than a mile away from there! "I live around there too!" I exclaimed. Again, it seemed to convenient.

I went to the back of the helicopter where Laura was. I curled up beside her and fall asleep again, knowing that once awake, I would be home. I quickly shot up and thought in dismay.

I wasn't human anymore. I couldn't just go back to living normally. What would I do now?