Boxed In

1-2

Leaning against the wall, I tried to wrap my head around everything. Our host, Ela, was staring out of a carefully cut hole in the heavy fabric she'd covered the windows with. Her shoulders were visibly tense, and the very tip of her tail was twitching.

She said that the wall had gone up four months ago and the city was filled with monsters. That the most dangerous were near the coast, where the 'creature's' body currently was, and that was also where the fog was the thickest.

I tried not to think about Dad, about how close the dockworkers would have been to the insanity.

"Could it have really been four months?" Madison asked. She was sitting on the floor next to me, her ears almost flat as she looked morosely at the snake woman.

"Stranger things have happened," I muttered. It was possible Ela was confused, but I found it hard to believe she'd lost that much time. The other option was that we were wrong, and Dragon had somehow constructed an elaborate hoax to convince us we'd spent less time in quarantine than we thought.

That was nonsense, of course. The base where we had been held had plenty of windows and a garden, and we'd even had limited access to TV shows and internet. The amount of effort it would have taken to fool us couldn't have been worth any possible benefit.

"We walked past the same shop four times without noticing—"

"I noticed," Madison mumbled, but I ignored her.

"—if time is moving faster here… it wouldn't be surprising that they lost contact." It also meant the situation was a lot worse than anyone thought.

So… what do we do now?

Find Dad…

sighing, I put the thought aside. It felt like a hole in my chest, but I had to accept it. If things really were worse at the docks, then Dad probably wasn't there, and our house had been destroyed when that monster had attacked.

My best, and only, chance of finding him would be to get in contact with Dragon.

"We head for the nearest gate and call for help. They need to know what's happening here."

"Great." Madison jumped to her feet, brushing herself off. "Should we go now? There's no point hanging around, after all." She shot a glare at Ela's back.

"You're heading for the gates!?" Ela turned with a start, her eyes wide. "Take me with you!"

She slithered forward, roughly pushing Madison aside before either of us could say anything. "Please, I can't stay in this city any longer!"

I held my hands up in an effort to calm her down, but there was a manic gleam in her eyes. "I'm safe, I promise! I stopped changing months ago, that means I'm safe, right?!"

Behind her, Madison continued to glare at Ela, one finger making a twisting movement next to her head.

Growling slightly at both of them, I grabbed Ela by the shoulders and pushed her back. "Enough! What are you talking about?" I tried to be firm with her, hoping to hide the unease in my gut.

She stared at me, her shoulders trembling under my hands. "You have a way out of the city, right?"

"No." Lowering my hands, I shook my head. "I'm sorry, but we can't leave the city. Nobody can. Even if the PRT could get the gates open, we're all infected."

"But, but"—she looked down at herself—"it stopped! Aren't we immune?"

"It doesn't work like that," I said gently. "Now please, what did you mean by 'I stopped changing?'"

"I… it's what happens. First, you get sick and you're not allowed to stay with the others. Then your body changes. If you're lucky, you only change a bit and you end up like, like us." She waved a hand between me and her.

"Different, but stronger and pretty. The others… the ugly ones... aren't like us. They don't stop changing. They just go around killing and eating, and once they've eaten enough, they change again. Getting bigger and stronger. We don't do that." She looked at the ceiling, her voice almost wistful before she shook herself. "So, you see, we're safe!"

'Grow, stronger, changing'. The words echoed in my mind, but I pushed them aside. I didn't have time to worry about the implications right now.

"We don't show symptoms, but the infection is still in our bodies," I said carefully, watching to see how Ela reacted. "We're carriers. If they let us out of the city, we would continue to infect everyone around us."

Ela shrank down on herself, looking smaller and more vulnerable. "Oh… I see." She chuckled quietly. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Of course nothing is that easy…" Huffing, she pushed her hair back and took a deep breath.

After a minute, she seemed to have calmed down, but I had my doubts. More likely, it was a front, a calm facade to hide how she was really feeling.

"It's really not safe to be walking in the fog after dark," she said eventually. "It's really easy to lose your way, and the monsters are more active. You're welcome to stay here, of course, and in the morning, I can give you directions."

Moving off to one side, she pulled some blankets from a pile in the corner and offered them to me. They were a bit worn, thin in some places and patched with scraps in others, but they smelled clean and were a better option than the floor. Actually, now that I think about it, the whole place smelled of bleach. It was almost overpowering.

"I'm afraid I don't have much food left," Ela said with a shrug. "I was just about to start cooking a cat I'd found when I heard you fighting."

"Cat?" Madison muttered, going pale.

"The meat's a bit dark, but there's not a lot of choice these days."

"It's fine. We have some protein bars." We also had a couple of MREs each, but with no water, we couldn't really cook them. We'd been expecting to land in a city that had been cut off for a few days, not months, after all.

Later, as I laid my blanket down, Ela went through a door into what I presumed was her bedroom or a storeroom of some kind.

"Taylor!" Madison hissed, sliding up next to me. "You're really going to stay here?!"

"What else can we do?" I hissed back. "We don't know how the city has changed, and those things are still out there!"

"Yes but… you can't seriously trust her? She's fucking nuts. It's not safe here!" Madison sounded almost hysterical. The hair on her tail was visibly standing on end.

"And what do you suggest we do instead?"

Madison worked her mouth soundlessly, clearly trying to think of something to say, but after a moment, she gave up. With a huffy sound, she snatched a blanket from the pile and threw it down next to mine and sat with her back pressed to the wall.

Before more could be said, Ela returned. She had a strip of what looked like jerky in her hand that she was gnawing away at.

"Do you want some?" she mumbled around her food, holding out another strip with her free hand. It smelt… odd, not bad, just odd.

Madison shook her head, but manners drilled into me by Mom forced me to take a piece in an effort to avoid being rude. 'Don't think about cats, don't think about cats,' I chanted to myself as I took a bite. It was tougher than I expected, but had a surprisingly pleasant taste, like really strong pork.

As Ela went through another door, Madison and I forced a protein bar each down, the thick, cloying texture a bad substitute for a good meal.

##

Eventually, Ela put out the lights, and we settled down for the night. Madison was still next to me, constantly fidgeting and huffing. PRT armour wasn't exactly comfortable to sleep in, but neither of us wanted to risk removing it until we were sure we were safe.

Despite my exhaustion, I could do little more than lie there staring at the ceiling. The constant worry gnawing at my gut wouldn't leave me alone. Dad would be fine. He was probably staying at a friend's house or something. He'd been dealing with the city's gangs for years; a few monsters weren't going to bother him.

My ears twitched as something soft was dragged across the floor. Lifting my head up, I looked around to see Ela emerging from the doorway to her room.

Unlike before, when she'd moved with her torso raised, now she was flat to the floor, using her arms to keep her bare skin off the wood as she slithered forward.

It took me a moment to realise she'd removed her clothes, her pale skin shining in the darkness and large, firm breasts swaying tantalisingly with every movement of her body.

Gasping, I stared as she approached, finally forcing myself to look away as she got close, only to look into her glowing yellow eyes and knowing smile.

"I just realised," she whispered, her voice husky, sending shivers down my spine and making my tail twitch. "You came from outside. You don't know… I guess I'll have to show you." She licked her lips.

Madison was trembling next to me, her breath a little more than a ragged gasp as Ela placed a hand on my leg. I could feel her heat of her touch through the thick material as she crawled up my body with agonizing slowness.

Leaning forward, she pressed her breasts against my stomach, dragging them over my torso until they rested on mine. She moaned from deep in her throat, the smell of her arousal filling the air.

Heat was building between my legs, the near constant desire I'd been living with since I transformed spreading throughout my body. My thoughts were getting foggy; all I could focus on was her glowing eyes and the feel of her body and her hot breath on my face.

"Have you ever tried this?" Her face was inches from mine. With one hand, she reached up, gently undoing my collar, exposing the overstuffed sports bra below my shirt.

"I... what?" My voice was barely above a squeak. I didn't know what to do. My body was trembling, my limbs heavy; I'd never experienced anything like this.

"I promise, I'll be gentle." Hands on either side of my head, Ela held herself above me, her breasts swaying invitingly close to my mouth as she looked down at me, my body pinned beneath her weight. Her lips parted in a wide smile. Too wide.

She dove forward suddenly, and pain filled my body as she sank her teeth into my neck. I let out a strangled scream as ice spread through my veins and my vision started to swim.

I was barely aware of Madison screaming next to me, the world a blur of noise and colour.

Twisting her torso, Ela grabbed Madison's head, the mess of colours all mixing together as my vision darkened at the edges.

That was when Madison exploded.

Ela screamed as the coils around Madison's limbs were violently engulfed in flames, the fire spreading to the blankets beneath us and the dry wooden floor, and the two of them rolled out of sight.

Growling, I tried for focus through the haze. My claws twitched as fire filled my throat, warmth spreading through my body and slowly driving back the cold. Whatever I'd been injected with, it was wearing off fast.

Ela managed to pin Madison, ignoring the burning hands that were keeping her from biting down on Madison's neck. Ela's tail, longer and thicker than I remembered it, was still across my chest in an effort to keep me still as the world came into focus.

Blood filled my mouth as I grabbed the tail, biting down with all the force I could muster and driving my claws deep into Ela's flesh to hold her still.

Screaming and distracted by the pain, Ela's grip on Madison loosened, and the smaller girl slammed her fist into Ela's mouth with the crunch of bone. Blood and teeth hit the floor as Ela rolled back, clutching at her face.

Not letting up, Madison followed her, forcing Ela to the floor. Grabbing her head, Madison slammed her into the ground again and again until the woman stopped moving and the only sound was Madison's ragged breathing.

Gradually, the fires around us petered out. Madison's fire only burned what she wanted it to and for as long as she willed it, and thankfully, she didn't want the entire place to go up with us in it.

"T-Taylor?" Getting up, she wrapped her shaking arms around me and tried to lift me off the floor.

"I'm… okay," I muttered, leaning on her shoulder to stand. My neck hurt, but the numbness in my limbs was nearly gone. Madison helped me make it as far as the wall, where she propped me up while she looked for some water.

Ela was still breathing with a wet, laboured sound, and a dark, angry part of me wanted nothing more than to drag my claws across her throat.

I pushed the thought away. A mindless monster was one thing, but murdering a human who couldn't even fight back was a line I wasn't ready to cross.

"Taylor? You need to see this!" Madison's voice was strained, and something about it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Pushing off the wall, I did my best to shuffle round to the small room Madison had disappeared into.

It had been a kitchen once, and in many ways, it still was. The oven had been pulled apart, turned into something more like an open grill. The cold ashes of a fire sat beneath a collection of metal poles with a few strips of foul-smelling meat impaled on them. Clothes in various states of disrepair were piled up next to a sink with a missing tap, as were a couple of rucksacks.

It was the far corner of the room that held Madison's attention. There, piled up in a large bucket, were bones that had been picked clean. A human skull sat near the top, its empty eye sockets staring at me accusingly.

My stomach started to cramp as I looked between the bones and the meat.

"Didn't you…"

Not listening to Madison, I spun on my heel and half ran, half stumbled from the kitchen. I paid Ela's prone form no mind as I went through the door on the far side of the room and into a hallway before I finally lost the struggle and was noisily sick.

'I, I ate, it was—' My thoughts were a jumbled mess as I emptied my stomach and continued to dry heave.

Things were different after my change. 'A preference for meat', Dragon had said. I'd never thought that would include human meat.

I never even heard Madison approach. Kneeling next to me, she placed a hand on my back, gently rubbing circles while her other hand held my hair back.

"It's alright," she muttered, "you'll be okay… here, drink this."

A brown bottle was held out in front of me, and I stared at it, uncomprehending until I realised it was whiskey.

"Found it in the kitchen. Don't worry, it was sealed."

Taking the bottle, I tipped half of the contents down my throat, ignoring the way it burned. I could breathe fire; a little bit of whiskey was nothing.

"Wow…" Madison giggled. "If I knew you could drink like that, I'd have invited you to a sleepover ages ago."

Handing the bottle back, I gasped for air. The whiskey had washed most of the taste out of my mouth and deadened my sense of smell. I wasn't worried about the alcohol itself, as we both had a healing factor. It wasn't much—we wouldn't be regrowing limbs anytime soon—but minor scrapes would heal in minutes, and poisons like alcohol would burn out quickly.

"...I grew up in the docks, of course I can drink."

It was a weak joke, likely not helped by my pale skin and shaky limbs, but if I didn't joke, if I let myself stop and think, then I was probably going to cry.

"We need to get out of here." Putting a hand on the wall, I rose to my feet. "I don't care what's waiting for us outside."

"You and me both," Madison muttered, taking her own swig from the bottle.

"Come on, let's see if we can find a way onto the ro—" I stopped. It was faint, but there was a muffled thumping coming from one of the nearby rooms.

Madison and I shared a look, then quietly moved down the hall. At the end, on the right side wall, was a door. Madison gently gripped the handle and held up her other hand, counting down with her fingers.

On two, I took a deep breath, fire building in my chest. On zero, she flung the door open, and I stepped forward, only to swallow my fire in an effort to not incinerate the girl inside.

She was younger than me, with dark skin and a set of cat ears emerging from her pink and purple hair. Her legs were tightly bound together, with bloodstains on the ropes where they were cutting into her flesh. A ball gag was jammed in her mouth, keeping her from talking, and her arm was chained to an old iron radiator with what looked like handcuffs.

Her other arm was missing, ending in a bloody bandage just past her elbow.

She shrank back at the sight of us, her ears lying flat and tail curling under her.

"It's okay." Moving forward, I gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "We're not going to hurt you. Madison, can you get this gag off?"

I couldn't do it myself—too much chance of hurting her with my claws—but Madison's hands were more or less unchanged.

"Oh! Yeah, of course." Moving past me, she reached behind the girl and started messing with the buckles.

The room must have been a bathroom. The remains of a shower hung in one corner with a towel rack opposite it. There was still a sink that was, surprisingly, clean. Grabbing a towel, I turned the tap and was relieved when a weak stream of water trickled out.

Soaking the towel, I knelt down and wiped at the girl's face as Madison finally got the gag off and moved to untie her feet.

"It's alright. My name's Taylor, can you tell me yours?"

"Aisha." Her eyes were different colours and shining with tears, and her voice was raspy. I couldn't tell if that was from crying, or if she always sounded like that.

"Okay Aisha, we're going to get you out of here. I just need you to hold on for a bit longer."

Madison had finished untying Aisha's legs, but the handcuff on her wrist meant she couldn't leave. Ela likely had a key somewhere, but she wasn't in any condition to tell us. Instead, I reached forward, taking the cuff around Aisha's wrist in one hand and the radiator in the other.

With a jerk, I snapped the flimsy metal chain joining them, leaving the now useless cuff hanging on her wrist like a morbid piece of jewelry. With any luck, we would find a way to remove it later.

Putting my arms under her, I lifted Aisha in a bridal carry. I'd expected some sort of complaint, but instead, she snuggled down into my chest, her eyes falling closed. This close, it was hard not to notice the dark rings under her eyes. How long was she chained up here?

"Let's get out of here, before I torch the entire building."

"Waste of effort," Madison muttered, throwing a dark look at the room with Ela in it.

At the other end of the hall was another door. This one opened onto a landing with steps leading up and down. Presumably, down went to the shop and the fortifications Ela had built. Rather than deal with that, we went up.

It was still dark out as we emerged on the roof, the fog thick around us, making it hard to judge direction.

After a brief hesitation, we turned and went roughly in the direction we came and, hopefully, away from the docks, moving from one roof to the next. Aisha slept through it all, even when I had to glide across the bigger gaps with Madison on my back to clear entire streets.

The fog never lifted, making it impossible to tell just how far we had gone. The only thing we were sure about was that even if Ela had woken up, she wouldn't be able to catch up.

Eventually, we had no choice but to stop. We were lost and tired, and my neck and shoulder ached where Ela had bitten me.

Not wanting to risk being outside, we found a door that led into a building and took shelter on the landing inside.

"Right," Madison said, giving me a stern look the moment we were in cover, "let's take a look at that shoulder."

Sighing, I put Aisha down as gently as I could, but she still stirred, opening her eyes slightly to glare at me, before shuffling closer as I sat down next to her.

Madison hastily stifled a giggle as Aisha placed an arm around my waist, her tail wrapping around mine, then seemingly went back to sleep.

"Guess she's tired," Madison whispered, kneeling next to me. "Sorry if this stings."

One of the pouches on her hip contained a collection of first aid materials like antiseptic sprays and a roll of bandages.

I tried not to blush as she unclasped the flak jacket and opened up my shirt. For her part, Madison was at least decent enough not to stare and instead set about cleaning the wound where my neck and shoulder met.

Dragon had modified everything to fit, but I wasn't exactly small these days, and the armour put a constant pressure on my chest that got uncomfortable after a while. It was nice to relieve it for a bit.

Madison took a breath, visibly bracing herself as she threw a used cloth down the stairs.

"Listen, I know you don't like me, and that's fine." She was quiet, pointedly looking away from me, her ears drooping so low they almost blended into her hair like a kicked puppy. "But we are not going to survive if you don't at least listen to me."

"I do listen!" I hissed, gritting my teeth as Madison poked my wound. I'd just thought she was being paranoid because Ela was a snake.

"Oh please, you rarely spoke to me when we were in the hospital. You barely stayed in the same room as me!"

"Well what do you expect," I snapped, "after everything you put me through? Am I just supposed to forget—"

Madison held a hand up, cutting me off.

"That's not the point! We are on our own, and from the moment we arrived, you have made all the decisions. We were supposed to go straight to the gates, but instead, you brought us here, right into the worst part of the city!" Madison's voice had been steadily rising as she spoke until she was just barely under a shout, the noise disturbing Aisha, who shifted her weight against me and moaned in protest.

Huffing, Madison sat back, and when she spoke again, she forced herself to be quiet. "When I tried to warn you about Ela, you ignored me, even though everything about her screamed danger. I get it, you're 'a big bad dragon' and I'm just a mouse. But that doesn't make me wrong, stupid or useless!"

She glared at me, tears visible in the corners of her eyes.

I glared back, wanting nothing more than to punch her in the face. It wouldn't prove anything, but it would at the very least make me feel better.

Except it wouldn't, because I knew she was right. The only reason we landed here was because I wanted to find my dad. I didn't notice the danger because I was too busy ignoring Madison and I never thought Ela was a threat.

Breaking eye contact, I looked down at myself, one of my claws playing with the velcro on my top. No buttons; I couldn't use them anymore. All my clothes had to have velcro on them now. I had a brute rating, I had scales, claws, a tail, I could fly and fucking breathe fire! I was a dragon… and I was starting to think that the changes were messing with my head.

Taking a breath, I forced myself to calm down. It was only a problem if I ignored it. Now that I was aware, I could account for it.

"You're right…" And wasn't that just a kick in the head. But if I wanted to survive, to find Dad, then I would need her help.

"And?"

"And I'll try to listen more," I ground out, feeling like a scolded child.

"I guess that's as good as I'm going to get." Throwing her hands up, Madison shook her head. Despite her words, there was a faint smile on her lips. "Now budge up."

Pressing herself against my other side, opposite Aisha, Madison snuggled against me and closed her eyes.

"And for the record," she muttered, "I'm not scared of you, so don't go thinking that predator/prey shit works on me."

Huffing, I resisted the urge to push her away and tried to settle down for the night.

In the morning, we woke to nearly two feet of snow covering the entire block.

What the fuck was going on in this city?

AN: commission for NaGeL.

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