Unknown POV:

I watched him disarm the bombs and traps in silence, covering my ears to muffle the sound. They hadn't always been really sensitive, in fact I hate to say this, but... It's because of the military that I'm still alive.

The man, Joel I think, picked up a bow and plucked a few arrows from a corpse of an infected. I stayed atop the roofs, silently stalking him, wary of his every move.

Here, let me tell you something about why I don't trust this guy.

You see, I was born in an abandoned town on the outside. My mother, Rayne, gave birth to me fourteen years ago, on October 31st. How do I know this? Because Aunt May told me.

She's not my real Aunt, more of a Godmother. But when my mother died two days after I was born, May raised me on her own, barely travelled anymore. Until we were separated, that is.

I had just turned ten, and we were a fair-sized group. Me and May, twin brothers Grey and Davis, an older man Ray and his daughter Lilly. And last but not least, Brooke.

Brooke was seventeen, and my best friend. Hell, my only friend. The twins were entering their thirties and weren't interested in me, Lilly was in her forties and too busy with her Dad. May would go looting and enforce the area we stayed in. Me and Brooke were the youngest there.

We just went to the water bucket when the others came barrelling at us with our stuff and told us to run. Turns out that some of the folks from the quarantines were checking out the area and had spotted our group. We grabbed our things and ran for the hills. That's when the infected came.

The twins had been taken out by the infected and Lilly and Ray were shot down. May and Brooke had fallen down a crack in the Earth and screamed for me to run when the soldier grabbed me and knocked me out.

All I remember after that was waking up in a research lab. At the time I didn't know where I was or what was going on, and all I knew was something had happened to me because I was strapped down to the table.

An orderly came in with some food and water, with orders to inform me of my recent... changes.

His name was Bobby, and he told me that the research base had been tasked with finding new ways to adapt for survival. They had observed animals like dogs and found out that their eyesight, hearing and general reflexes were miles better than what we had, hence why more animals were surviving. He also said that the nameplate on the door said "Experiment 009.X"

He handed me a mirror, and what I saw made me go wide-eyed.

First off, my ears were missing. Now I know what your thinking. If his ears are gone, how can he hear?

Well, my ears were gone, and my hair hung over the patches of skin. But sitting atop my head was a pair of fuzzy reddish-orange animal ears.

While I sat checking out my new look, Bobby explained that the scientists had removed my ears and reconnected the nerves and veins to a pair of fox ears and injected me with a large amount of fox DNA.

When I asked him why a fox and why me, he told me that the only available specimen they had was a fox, and that they needed as young a person as possible for the operation to go successfully.

While I processed this information, he informed me of my other changes.

"Now, son, you'll find your eyesight has improved greatly, along with your hearing and sense of smell. Also, your nails grew longer and hardened-"

"Like claws?"

Bobby nodded.

"Yeah. Like claws."

A few days later, Bobby didn't come to visit me. I overheard a few guards chatting about how one of the orderlies had blabbed too much to Experiment 009.X and had been executed. As you can guess, my mood was sullen all the while. On that day I learned to never get close to adults again. Especially since the soldiers and scientists had begun performing tests on me.

A week went by with no change, when suddenly I heard howls and crashes. The infected had broken in and were battling the rest of the facility.

I took my chances and bolted out of the research base after stealing some clothes, dodging infected and bullets, fleeing from the yells.

"Don't let 009.X escape!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X

It's been four years since that day. Four years with no word from Aunt May or Brooke. Four years away from any human contact.

I cursed mentally as I accidentally knocked some rubble off the roof in the midst of my flashback.

I saw the man Joel spin round, pulling out a brick.

He didn't go fast enough however, as I pounced on him and raised my clawed hand to deliver the final blow.

Just as I bought my hand down, I froze as I heard a yell.

A yell that would save me from the nothing I'd become.

"Joel!"