Screams laden with fear and pain reached her ears, making her skin crawl. The darkness of nighttime failed to hide the horror that had befallen the city she had called home. Bodies littered the street, sidewalk, and yards; smeared blood covered nearly every single surface. Cars were either half submerged in the rubble of the buildings that they had crashed into, or flipped upside down. Bonfires randomly dotted the city, giving off uneven light. The undead shuffled their way through the city, looking for the flesh of the living. Occasionally, a group of those same undead would be on their hands and knees, tearing away at hapless victim.
Who could have thought that the city would have gotten this bad in a mere day? To most, this was only a nightmare; something that only happened to others. Even Audrey—one who knew that this was a very real possibility—was taken by surprise by the sudden viral outbreak that was taking place in her hometown. The overweight B.O.W. stood on the porch of her home, gazing towards Main Street with wide eyes. All of this was happening because of her… Guilt raged within her: all those people were dead because she had escaped from the clutches of the Nexus Foundation. She had risked the lives of innocent people because she wanted freedom.
Enough! There can still be survivors out there that need our help. Get your ass out there and look,a single male voice snarled in her head. It was the voice of the animalistic, yet intelligent Hunter nature that shared her body and mind. While he was normally violent towards her in conversation, he was less so these past few hours. Perhaps because it had something to do with the viral outbreak, or maybe it was merely a phase he was going through.
"Could be both," Audrey thought grimly to herself. Either way, it didn't matter. He was right; there could still be survivors someone in town that needed help. There was nothing that could be done to those who had already fallen victim to the zombies and other B.O.W.'s, but the survivors still had a chance. Part of her was considering staying in human form and look for survivors that way. Mutating into the Hunter form was something that she wasn't very fond of. Audrey trembled slightly at the thought of the pain that she would subject herself to during the mutation. "No, I'm staying form. I don't want to mutate… It might fail anyways," Audrey said, half to herself.
The voice in her head snarled again before he spoke up again. You either do it, or I'll take over and make you do it. You know that you have a better chance of battling the other B.O.W.'s out there in my form… Audrey was about to argue back, but held it back when she heard the scream of another victim being torn apart by yet another one of the B.O.W.'s. Despite her hatred of the voice that took up residence in her head, she knew that he was right… She barely knew how to fight in either form, but at least she had claws as a Hunter. Letting out a slow and hesitant sigh, Audrey closed her eyes and began to mutate from human form to Hunter form. Despite not liking what was coming, she knew that she could be of better help to someone in her other form.
Extreme pain lanced through her body as the mutation began. Under the pain, her body began to itch on the inside as her skeletal system began to change. They elongated, changed in density and changed in form that they needed to be. Her fingers erupted into large, serrated, very sharp claws that glinted faintly in the moon light. Audrey's bones continued to readjust and change for what felt like minutes on end. The itch changed to a burning sensation; her muscular system changed in such a way to cover the new, reptilian/human hybrid skeletal system. The movement of her muscular system made her skin crawl…quite literally. It looked like a bunch of some kind of internal worm-like parasite was crawling just beneath her skin.
During this time, her organs shifted around and changed to accommodate her new body. Even though her eyes became those of the Hunter, her eyesight remained as poor as it was when she was in human form. However, her other senses became keener, one at a time. A terrible itch gripped Audrey's body, nearly driving the B.O.W. mad. Raking her claws across her arms, she felt her human skin ripping off; underneath was the scaly skin typical of a Hunter MA-121. The rest of her human skin cracked and peeled off like healing sunburn.
Within seconds, a Hunter stood where Audrey once did. She staggered back, the pain of mutating still present. No matter how much many times she did this, Audrey was never going to get used to it. She had been lucky enough that the pain hadn't been so severe that she reverted back to her human form. However, the pain would eventually fade to a mere memory.
Shaking her head, Audrey forced herself to focus on the task on hand: finding any survivors. If she managed to find anyone, that was if she managed to survive herself, she would go after the bastards who had lay waste to her town. Lowering to all fours, Audrey let loose an earsplitting screech. An instant later, she leapt off of the porch and bounded down the street. Her claws scraped across the asphalt, causing sparks to appear. "If anyone's out there, please stay alive," Audrey pleaded silently in her mind.