by Sammie Joyce
All four of the men creped around the building and listened for sounds of anything coming from inside. All Shane heard was the sound of scratching, squeaking and chattering coming from inside. And, even though he hated to admit it, those sounds signified rats were in the building. He kept walking around, but those were all of the noises that he heard, and his instincts told him the same.
He sighed in exasperation. “Let’s go inside and look for rats,” he said with a defeated tone on his breath.
Shane opened the door and shined his flashlight inside the warehouse. The moment he did, all he could see were rats in every single direction. He turned to tell the men, but they were already walking up with a lot of cages in their arms. They were always prepared and that was one of the things that he loved about his team.
They slowly walked into the building and Shane realized that they were going to have to capture all of the rats because they had no idea which one of them was Sarah. So, unless she made herself human again, they were going to have to get to work and collect all of the rats and put them in cages.
Everyone took a cage and split up. Shane collected all of the rats in a certain area and closed the cage when it got full.
“All done, boss,” Tom said to him.
Shane looked around and noticed that all of the rats were in cages, crawling all over themselves. He shook his head in confusion and headed back to the truck.
“It’s Shane. We have the subject apprehended and we are on our way back to headquarters,” he said to the superior on the other side of the phone.
He jumped in the back, behind his team and headed back to the lab. The thought of Sarah was still fresh in his mind.
6
Five Years Prior
Shane sat up in bed screaming, his sheets tangled all around him. They were torn to shreds. He must have partially shifted during the night. His white claws were still out and he could feel fresh scratches on his legs from where they had dug into them. His dreams were getting intense and he knew that he needed to do something about it. There was no way that he could continue waking up like this. Changing in his sleep was dangerous for everyone.
But he couldn’t get the incident out of his head or the bear for that matter. He knew that he had done everything that he could and it still wasn’t enough. He knew that he could do better. He was trained to do better and it still happened on his watch. Even though it wasn’t his fault, he still felt responsible for their death.
He saw that day every night in his dreams and there was no escape from it, even when he was awake. He couldn’t shake it.
The day was cold and wet. A perfect day to go out for a run. Shane laced up his sneakers, put on his jacket and walked out into the cold. Raindrops washed his face and dripped down his neck. There was something comforting about the blanket of storm clouds that surrounded the sky. The smell of rain always smelt good to him. It brought up all of the smells of the forest and it smelt clean to him.
As soon as his feet hit brush he started to jog briskly and before he knew it, he was full fledge running. He wished he could shape shift here and run in his true form. However, there were too many people who lived in the area and he didn’t want them to get suspicious of a bear running too close to the city. He would have to take a day and go up in the mountains where he can run without any disturbances.
He heard some noises as he got closer to the bridge. They didn’t really phase him because the highway was noisy anyway -the sound of running water below, the honks and yells from drivers and passengers in cars, and those who stop on the bridge for a view of the waterfall – it all tended to make a lot of noise. So, he was used to the sounds. That was, until he heard something out of character.
Shane stopped in his tracks and turned his head. All the hair on his arms stood up and they were covered in goose flesh. The sound of a bear roaring was heard all the way out here but the bear didn’t sound scared. It was attacking, but why? He heard screams from humans. Three screams from a man and a woman and a whimper from a teenager. Without a second thought, he ran to the direction of the bridge and was terrified by what he saw.
A male grizzly was standing in the middle of the bridge and cars were stopped all around him. He was standing over a small white Volvo and a man and woman were lying next to the car, not moving a muscle. They weren’t engaging the bear, and yet he was ready to attack. Something didn’t seem right, but he knew that he needed to do something. He heard the whimper again and noticed a teenage girl, about seventeen, standing on the bridge, soaked from the rain. Water and tears were running down her face and she was panicking. He could tell that she wanted to do something to help these people who must be her parents, but she had no idea what to do.
Taking a step back, he ran backwards into the woods and willed his body to change. He was deadly when he was in his bear form and he normally wouldn’t shift so close to humans, but he didn’t have a choice in this instance. He needed to save their lives.
He felt the change take over him and his body cover in fur. He enjoyed how instantaneous it was now. It used to take a long time before and it was painful. His body had gotten used to it over time, but his limps did tingle with little bits of pain.
As soon as he was fully changed, he charged out of the forest and onto the bridge to confront the other grizzle that was standing on two legs roaring at the couple at the top of their lungs.
The people were being subservient and he still didn’t understand why. He ran out to block the couple from the wrath of the other bear and growled in his face to let him know that he was going to protect the humans at all costs.
The bear accepted his challenge and roared back and he did the same thing. Now they were going to learn who was the alpha in this situation. The couple must have noticed what was going on because they slowly got back inside the car, closed and locked the door behind them. They would have tried to drive away, but the bears were blocking their path. If he could only get the bear away from them, it could help them get to safety. However, he did notice that the teenager was still standing on the sidewalk and she would have to go through them to get to the car. How could he get her to the car, with her parents, and all of them out of harm’s way while he was fighting the bear? He needed to think fast and it was hard to do with the bear in his face.
Shane took his paw and hit the bear in the face with it. His claws came into contact with the bear’s lip and blood dripped from the flesh he split open. The bear roared in pain and stood up on his hind legs to challenge Shane. He had no idea why this bear wouldn’t back down. He really didn’t want to hurt one of his own. It seemed like he didn’t have much choice in his current situation.
He stood up on his hind legs and didn’t wobble since he was used to walking on two because of when he shifted into a man. His front legs clashed with the other bears and they were in a full-frontal fight. The other bear trying to bite or rip his throat out was something he was trying to avoid because he didn’t want to die during this fight. Maybe if he spoke to the bear mentally, he would back down. It was worth giving a shot. No one needed to prove anything here.
Step down. These people don’t want to hurt you, he told them.
KILL!
No one is trying to hurt your family! You are safe! You can back down now!
KILL!
The only thing that was going through the bear’s mind was to kill. He had a taste for blood and he wasn’t listening to anything that Shane was telling him. The bear lunged for him and pushed him to the ground, snarling at his neck and gashing his right leg. He felt his claws penetrate his flesh and he tried to push him off, but he was stronger than Shane expected.
DON’T WANT TO HURT YOU! KILL PEOPLE!
Shane heard the voice in his head, and he was astounded that he was really out for blood. He knew that he must do to save these people from their enemy.
He growled at the bear and threw him off him. Shane scrambled to his feet and the two bears snarled at each other. Shane realized that he had
lost the advantage… His opponent was standing right next to the Volvo. The couple inside screamed and the bloodthirsty bear became more aggressive. He roared at the car and started pushing it closer to the edge of the bridge with his body. All Shane could see was the car going over the edge with the people inside it.
The girl on the sidewalk screamed for help, but no one knew what to do. They were paralyzed by the two grizzlies walking on the highway. Shane knew he needed to act fast for many reasons. He just needed to do it before the police or animal control arrived with tranquilizer guns.
Everything happened so fast. Shane ran toward the car and leaped to remove the car from the grip of his opponent. The railing of the bridge started to collapse and the car rocked on the edge. The couple had found a way to get out of the car before it falls over the edge and he tried to distract the bear by snarling at him again and gnashing his teeth. The bear didn't take the bait and must have sensed that the couple had gotten out of the car. The bear turned to face them and bellowed in their face. The two backed up slowly. Probably thinking about survival tactics for bears. Nothing they were taught could prepare them for this. They continued to back up and Shane wanted to scream about the danger behind them, but he knows they were more worried about the danger in front of them.
They walked back until their feet touched the rocks on the edge of the bridge where the railing used to be. They had nowhere else go. Shane lunged one more time and knocked the bear off the bridge, but right before he fell, his hind legs came into contact with the man. He knocked him over with him, along with the woman he held in his arms.
The girl ran from the other side of the bridge and stood at the edge where her parents fell, screaming behind him. He gently walked forward. He was partly to blame for their death. He should have done more. He should have killed his opponent when he had the chance. The hesitation would live in his mind forever. The girl turned at his presence, and he could see the fear in her eyes. He gently nudged her away from the edge with his nose. She didn't resist and followed him back into the middle of the highway and back to the forest. The girl stopped to pet his head in a gesture of gratitude. They stared into each other’s eyes and there was something about the look that she gave him that made him feel like home. At peace. Something he had been yearning to feel for a very long time. Something he had never felt with anyone before.
She removed her hand and he walked away from her, back into the forest to continue his run. He had a lot of things he needed to think about.
Ranson eyed the men putting the cages of rats in the back of their trucks. He wondered if Sarah was somewhere in one of those cages. He didn’t like the idea of her changing into a rat, but what other reason would the men have for taking all of these rats in cages? She must be in there and they didn’t know which one was her. Anyway, he was glad that the men had gathered all the rats for him. His men were too incompetent for that type of job. But they weren’t too incompetent for shooting.
All of his men aimed and started firing at the government trackers. The trackers jumped out of their truck and ran for cover in the bushes. This gave Ranson an advantage while his men moved in closer to scare the trackers off. He made his way over to the truck to grab the cages and run off. Except there were a lot more rats and cages than he thought before. He was going to have to make a calculated decision and choose the cages that he thought might contain the specimen.
He bent over and studied the rats to see if he might be able to spot her. The cage in the far back had a bunch of rats that were crawling over each other, except for one. As he looked closer, the fur on the rat was lighter than the colors of all of the other rats and it didn’t resemble any of the others with its shape either – it was misshapen. But, the one thing that he noticed about the rat, was that it was frozen in place and that called it out from all the others. With a smile on his face, he grabbed the cage and walked away from the chaos whistling and a little bounce in his step.
7
Sarah stood frozen in place as she was surrounded by rats. Rats that were crawling over her, squeaking and they were the same size as her. The thought was appalling. How did she get so small? She knew that she had wished that she was smaller when she was running in the woods, but she only wanted to be as small so she could hide from the men who were chasing her. She never thought she would end up in a cage of rats. Why couldn’t anyone see her?
A bright light shone right in her face and she squinted because she couldn’t move any of her limbs to cover her eyes. A man wearing a white lab coat was the one shining the light into the cages and when she looked back at him, she realized something horrible. She not only had shrunk down to the size of a rat, but that she was indeed a small rat and not just a tiny human. The thought itself repulsed her. However, the man moved the light away from her cage and shone it into the cage next to her. She watched him suspiciously when he focused on one rat in the other cage. He picked the cage up and smiled at it. His smile was cold and calculating like he had won a prize or something. It was so evil that it made her stomach turn.
She had no idea why he was so interested in that particular rat. He had been stepped on during the corralling inside the abandoned building and was lifeless. She had no idea what he could possibly want with him. She had no idea what any of the men could possibly want with any of them either. But she prayed that he didn’t take her with him and just picked up the cage he was looking at and move on. He gave her an eerie feeling that she never wanted to feel again. And the more she thought about it, the more she knew that she had seen him somewhere before. She just couldn’t place it anymore. The scrambling of the rats was kind of comforting and it was a distraction from all of the commotion and firing that was going on around her. The day had been extremely tiring and even though she should make herself stay alert and focus on what was going on around her. She felt herself falling fast asleep. The peacefulness of it called to her.
“Did we get them? Are they gone?” Shane yelled at the rest of his team. They had been planning to leave the abandoned building when a group of goonies ran out and started firing on them for no reason whatsoever. Or so he thought until he saw a man in a white coat come over to the truck and start examining all of the rats in the cages. He knew that the man was looking for Sarah and even though he didn’t know here and was on a mission to bring her back to headquarters, he still felt very protective about her.
The shooting sent them back into the woods until Dimitri started repelling the bullets with his powers, while the other two loaded up their guns and started firing back in the direction of the goonies. Shane was so mad. This should have been an easy mission but now he knew that someone else was after Sarah too and he didn’t know if their reasons were good or not. He was not about to find out.
He reached for his gun in his back pocket and started shooting back at the men who started to retreat when they realized that they didn’t have the upper hand anymore. The shifters and the vampire started rushing them and bullets were ricocheting off of the trees and one bounced off and grazed Tom’s leg. However, it didn’t faze him. He was strong enough to withstand the injury and get the job done. Men like him made Shane very proud to have them on his team because he knew what they were capable of.
The man in the white coat started whistling after he walked away from the bed of the truck. He was holding a cage of rats in his hands and Shane froze. He prayed that he wasn’t holding the one that had Sarah in it. He didn’t want to go chasing after this man when he already thought he had completed the most important part of his mission.
“They’re retreating. Hurry up! Let’s get back to the truck,” Dimitri yelled.
All four men ran back to the truck and jumped inside, slamming the doors behind them.
“Everyone okay?” Shane growled. The whole incident had perturbed him. They should have been able to sense the men following them through the woods. He blamed his lack of focus on the picture that was in his pocket, and suddenly his mind started picturing the girl’s face, her
plump pink lips, and dark green eyes, smooth olive skin and his breath caught in his throat. What was happening to him?
“Boss, did you hear us?” Tom asked.
Shane shook his head. “Sorry, I think my ears are still ringing from the bullets,” he said.
“Oh, I’ll add that to my list of minor injuries,” Dimitri wrote in a small notebook he had taken out of his pocket. “It will go on the list with the graze that Tom received from the bullet. No one else seems to have any injuries.”
“Great. I’ll send a message to headquarters letting them know that we are on our way back with the girl and that someone else was looking for her as well. They might be able to shed some light on who those other people were or at least start to look into,” Shane said while he sent a text out.
Once that was complete, he sat back in his seat and let Tom drive them back. He had a lot of thinking to do, and most of it was about Sarah and why she looked so familiar to him. Not only did he feel like he had seen her somewhere before, but he felt like he knew her. And, that was the part that got him. The image of her was now forever imprinted on his mind. For some reason, it reminded him of sunshine and rain; the feeling of coming home. No matter how hard he tried to make sense of that, he knew he needed it.
The truck swayed as it went over bumps and other roughage.
A loud noise came from the back of the truck.
“What was that?” Dimitri yelled.
Tom hit the brakes and he and Shane looked at each other.
“She’s changing back into human form,” Tom said. “She’s going to pop out of that cage and rats are going to be everywhere.”
Shane jumped out of the truck and walked around the back. He opened the tailgate and spotted a young naked woman with long, dark brown hair lying uncomfortably with the cages. Her skin was the same olive color from the pictures, and he could feel something inside of him start to shift – not the bear – just his reaction to her.
