Chapter Two
Panic raced through my mind as I watched myself clamber up a concrete slope. I was furiously searching my files for any information that would allow me to figure out what was happening, what had been happening, and who I was. All I could gather was I had claws, teeth, tail, ears,red eyes, and I am male. Searching files I found only one word that could have a purpose.
"barricade"
To me it was just a word that could have a meaning. A name, a place, or verb. Which one, I wasn't sure of, but I was going to set my mind and heart into finding out which one of those three options it was.
After more encounters with strange, pale creatures, I realized that I may have been the only one of my kind, whatever that species happened to be. They were speaking to me, but I could not make out what they were saying. Some were wearing thick pads of armor while others were gawking and wearing thin clothe-like materials.
I could recognize the fear that went through their eyes. Females were grasping their mates and offspring. The padded males all had their strange sticks pointed at me. Not knowing what was in store for me, but I continued to sink my claws into the concrete slab.
Eventually I managed to climb over a metal fence that kept the creatures from falling over. Bizarre black birds hovered over me with their weird wings defening my sensative hearing. The creatures had made a circle around my very prescence . Why they feared me, I was not sur eof, but I didn't want to harm them.
Standing on my four strong legs, I lowered my head to show that I had no intentions of an attack, but it was taken as a gesture of aggression. One creature pulled a black device and screeched into it. The black birds circled around me and then fired some sort of hook at me that wrapped around my neck.
I cried out and pleaded for them to let me go, but they couldn't understand me. Another bird shot at me and a rope coiled around my left hind leg. Then it streaked over me causing my leg to follow, which ended in me fliping over the rope and tieing myself up.
The line around my neck crushed my trachea and I tried to break free, but only tied myself up. Letting out a cry of agony, I hoped the creatures would let me go, but they only seemed interested in watching me suffer. This thought made rage fill my body. My eyes focused on a creature who had a smug look on his flat, pale face.His mouth moved and formed words, but they were only incoherant sounds to my ears.
Glaring at the creature only seemed to make him more arrogant as he continued to talk. Then I caught one sentance that I could understand. "...Stupid Creature!" he said with a grin on his face. Enraged, I screeched and let power flow from my heart to two large symmetrical spikes on my back. A surge of electricity and in a single shockwave, creatures fell to the ground dead. The black birds malfunctioned and crashed to the ground.
With the ropes now loose, I strugled to free myself as I looked around at the dead creatures sprawled all over the ground. I had no idea where the impulse of destroying came from. Maybe I did mean to brutally murder these creatures. Perhaps that human was correct in calling me a stupid creature.
Out ot the corner of my sensative left eye, I saw movement. My head swiveled towards the movement. A young female had survived my fury and now she was struggling to her feet. I started to saunter over to her location, crushing dead bodies under my feet as they carried my weight. When the human saw my advances she tried to flee, but fell to the ground once more.
Only yards away from my long claws, she was breathing frantically. Her hand searched for something to throw. My spur of anger, subsided, I attempted to show her I was not going to kill her by lowering my hulking chest to the ground. My rear still high, my legs folded so I was now crouched to the ground like a playful puppy. The black spikes that emerged from my back, the same spikes that sported the electrical surge, folded down next to the spikes that errupted from my spine.
As the sightof the harmless gesture, the female began to ramble. At first nothing made sense,but then, as if a switch had been thrown, her words made complete sense as she continued on with her questions. "What are you? Why did you kill all of these people? What just happened!" the bewildered female shouted. I was at a loss for words. I wasn't entirely sure if I could speak her language, but I took a stab at it anyway.
"I'm just as terrified as..." a quick look to see if she understood, but she stared at me with her simple eyes wide and her face lost all color. Deep down withing my brain, I understood that I couldn't speak her language. My eyes slowly shut as I heaved a large sigh and placed my head on the ground. My limited energy had been drained, but I had to process information that was thrust before me. Then to add to my confusion, a new sound rang through my ears.
WHOOP WHOOP
I lifted my head and glanced over my shoulder blade. A strange animal had appeared. With red and blue lghts flashin on a strange bar on top of an almost egg-like shape, and instead of legs, it had strange black round objects. The animal itself was silver, black, and a brilliant cerulean. On both sides it had a word that I had no definition for. "Se-cur-ity." Why would this animal be branded? Was it a slave to the strange bipedal creatures? The idea of this animal suffering enraged me.
"Scanning local camoflague" a robotic voice chimed inside my head. My eyes uncontrallably moved from one part of the animal to the next. "Scanning complete. Converting to local camoflague." The voice chimmed again. Mechanical screeching and wirring echoed in my as as parts of my body began to shift and shape to the unfortunate animal. Though it only took a few seconds of time, the sudden transformation seemed to be an eternity of pain and agony. While my body was being compacted into this new form, excruciating pain overloaded my brain. I convulsed and let out numerous howls before I looked exactly like the strange animal I had unwillingly scanned.
Only minutes before, I was minding my own buisness at Hoover Dam. But now, I was to the ground staring at a sleek, but outdated customized Mazda CX-9. Though they were considered a peice of crap, I remembered that in it's day, it was a hell of a car. Completely gas efficiant and built with the horsepower to compete with a large truck, the security vehicle that sat before me was once a large mechanical monster that destroyed everything on the Dam. All except myself, a 30 year old woman named Milissa Evens.
I had tried to speak to the monster, but it only growled evily at me. Then the local security officer showed up and the monster transformed into the security car. Now it sat motionless only feet away from my own.
"Miss! Is everything alright?" the male security officer shouted as he stepped casually out of his cruiser. I nodded my head in reply, but my line of vision remained focused on the transformed cruiser. Curiosity had now taken over as I attempted to stand. The officer took his gun out of it's holster and trained it on the transformed monster.
It was now figuring out what it was and what it has as the customized vehicle. The front wheels turned, the engine fired up and died, the wail of it's sirens and the flash ofit;s lights could be seen and heard for miles. Other adjustments were being made such as side mirrors moving, and the seats inside were also coming to life on their own.
The security officer remained focused on the vehicle, but with every movement, his gun would shift to a new spot. His arms and legs were shaking violently from fear and nervousness.His gun now ponted at the driver's side mirror, he edged toward the monster cautiously.
A click.
The officer pointed his gun at the trunk as it slowly opened. No movements were made after that. Long amounts of silence passed before a bird chirped, in result the edgy man lookedaway. His attentieness towards the bird made him blind to the almost silent whiring and clicking.
From my point of view, I saw the seats shift and multiple plates and pipes migrate towards the open trunk. The plates merged together to form something that looked like a tail, of the monster, that extended at least 6 feet from the trunk. I watched in silent horror as the dark grey and white appendage hovered towards the dazed man. I let out a scream right as the tail lurched and wrapped around the man;s chest. He cried out as the tail effortlessly lifted him high into the air. The officer continued to scream as he tried to get free.
I didn't know what the monster's plans were with this man, but I forgot about my pain and bolted up and sprinted over to the car, whimsically leaping over the ocassional dead body. I thrusted myself on the lengthy sloped hood of the cruiser and begged it to put the man down.
This was fun! Why my mind had suddenly been entertained by this creature's cries for help, Iw as unsure of, but something inside of me was amused by this tortuer. Though I still had no clue what I was, I had a better understanding. I must enjoy tormentingthese small animals.
"Yes. Animals. That's what they are. Nothing more than stupid creatures that live, mate, and die!" a more malicious side of my brain thought. It was almost a great sensation. Cruelty to this beast was magnificant. I thought I could go on forever, but I was snapped back into reality when I felt the female throw herself on the front portion where the beings of my head resided.
"Put him down! Please!"
Mystified, all movements in my fifth appendage halted. A more logical side of me combated my sudden cruelty as I hesitated to respond. Through my sensore receptors, I felt smal amounts of liquid streaming down the armor that covered my head, but other receptors relayed information that it was not raining. Unable to see, I signaled to my body to change shape, and it responded with the shifitn g of plates and pipes, painfully of course.
My arms and legs almost completely bent, I crouched with my chest touching the ground, My head, which had migrated before my torso appeared, now held the femal. She was unaware that I had changed.