An Encounter Under the Moon.
                                                 by Jason Rodencal

     A lone car travels down a forgotten highway under the watchful man in the full moon that tried shine through the thick treeline, its headlamps the only source of light to penetrate the dark woods surrounding the road.  It's sole occupant, interested in only finding a place to lay his head down for the night, stares straight ahead into the night and wonders what possessed him to take the path less traveled.  Questionable is his state of mind this late in the night, even more questionable in his ability to keep driving.

     Straight is the road, black the only color to be seen, even under the electric light of the car.  The sudden appearance of an unknown object creates panic in the still of the night as the driver tries in desperation to stop his car in an impossible amount of road.  The squeal of locked brakes and the spin of the car in a last ditch effort to avoid the inevitable collision.  The sickening sound of a dull 'thud' filled the cabin of the car as it shuddered to an ill-timed halt.

     The only sound to be heard was the driver hyperventilating as he sat in the driver's seat and gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles.  Slowly, he opened the door and stepped into the night air and watched his breath condense into a wisp that drifted off into the darkness.  Pulling a flashlight out of the dash, he shined it onto the ground and came across heavy damage to the bumper, but no sign of whatever it was in the middle of the road.  Did he imagine the whole thing?  No, the skid marks trailed behind the car and where could the impact have come from?  How could anything just have walked off from the accident considering the power of the impact?  Cautiously, the driver got back into his car and drove off after doing what repairs he could.  Had it been day, he might have noticed the rear was riding a tad bit lower on the shocks.

     The driver continued on into the unknown as he pulled a map out from the pocket on the door.  "Now where in the world am I?" he thought to himself.  A quick scan over the map reviled that the nearest civilization of any sort was still over a three-hour drive away.  Sleep was beginning to fog over his eyes and a snap decision for a sugar rush popped into his mind.  Reaching back for the cooler behind the driver's seat, he found not a soda, but something he couldn't quite place.  "What the hell??"  He started to turn around, but something rose from the footwell and pinned him the seat and held what felt like a knife to his throat.  In a low, bestial tone that sounded almost like it was painfully forced out, it whispered into his ear, "I won't hurt you........just keep driving....."  It released him and sank back into the backseat.  The driver looked into the rear-view and only saw a black mass with two eyes looking back.

     Ten minutes of driving formed a plan in the mind of the driver, a desperate gamble on his part to escape.  Without warning, he threw on the emergency brake and dove out the door.  Tuck and roll was all that he could do as he hit road surface and forced himself to stand up and run after coming to a stop with the rolls.  Despite the pain of the impact, he heard the back door open when he was only an estimated hundred feet away from the car and turned his head to look.  Out flowed a black mass that quickly came up to speed and bared down on him like a runaway train.  This only made him find the energy for more speed in his own legs.  He didn't go any more than another fifty feet before a sudden blow to his back brought him down to the ground face first.  The weight on his back could have only been the thing as it leaned close to his ear.  "That was really stupid......where do you think you could go.......the nearest house is a.... two day walk........I said I won't hurt you........I promise you that...," it said in its low voice as it got off of his back, "We can't stay here.... let's get moving...."  The driver rolled over and looked at his attacker; it was hunched over on all four like it wasn't even human.  "Wasn't even human....?" ran through his mind and jammed in place.  The creature motioned toward the car and the driver slowly complied.  A they walked toward the car, he noticed that it was walking with a profound limp, the kind of limp one would get from being hit with a car, and muttering the occasional curse.

     The car slowly moved on through the night.  From the back seat, the creature asked, "Do you......have a name....?" between ragged breaths.
"A-Allan....Allan Jefferies."
"Allan.....might you have something to eat in here....?"
"I-In the c-cooler...."
The sound of the cooler being opened quickly followed and the rustle of items being looked through.  Between the noisy bites of carrot sticks came a soft, "Thank you...."
"Do you have a name?"
"If I did.....I've long forgotten it....I don't remember much of anything anymore...."
All Allen could make out were the eyes in the darkness of the backseat and it bother the hell out of him not knowing just what he was dealing with.  Curiosity can be a bad thing in the hands of the impulsive as he shot a hand up to the roof light switch and flicked it on. Again, the brakes were locked up as a soft, "Oh, my God..." escaped from his lips.  Sitting there and staring back at him in the same surprised manor was a skunk, only it had to be the same size, no, bigger than himself.  Allan put the car in 'park', turned off the motor and headlights, and then just began to babble sentence fragments as he stared at the dashboard.  The skunk turned off the roof light and that caused Allan to go into a panic.
"AAAAUUUGGHHH!!!!"
"Please don't do that......it hurts my ears...."
"What the HELL are you?!?"
"Please don't scream.....I can hear you just fine..."
"I've got the right to fucking scream!  Answer me, what are you?!?"
"Even if I told you......you wouldn't believe me....all I can truly say is that something wants me dead.....We can't stay here....it's close, I can feel it....."
"What's close?  What's going on??"

     To answer his question, the woods next to the car came alive with a thunderous roar as several trees fell over and emerged the largest bear that Allen had ever see in his life.
"Holy shit!!!!!!" he yelled as Allan immediately started the car and throttled the engine into 'drive.'  The monstrous bear only swiped air with its huge paws as the car's wheels provided traction in a cloud of rubber smoke.
"Go.......go...as fast as you can..."
The little car quickly gained distance between it and the bear as the speedometer passed 60 and showed no sign of slowing down.

An hour or so down the road....

     Never has Allan pushed his little car so hard or so fast.  The lengthy time with the RPM meter at or over the redline point was taking it's toll, though:  Billows of white smoke flowed from underneath the hood as the engine coughed and sputtered its complaints.  Not long after all that began, the tiny v-4 finally gave up the ghost and the car drifted to a halt on the shoulder of the road.

     Neither one had said a single word since the close call with the bear and the cabin was filled with an uncomfortable silence as Allan just stared at the engine warning light.  Finally, the creature broke the silence.
"What's wrong?  Why did we stop?"
Allan said nothing in return or made any attempt to even acknowledge the question.  Though, in the back of his mind, Allan noted that he/she? was talking in a clearer voice without the tinge of pain that was present before.  Allan moved his eyes to the rearview mirror and stared at his passenger.  The giant skunk was becoming more fidgety by the moment.  Had the human sense of smell been stronger, the wave of fear washing off of it would have even frightened him.
"Please, we can't stop.  Please, Allan..."
The sound of his name broke Allan's trance, "I can't do anything, the engine blew," he responded in a flat voice.
"We must start walking then."
"No..."
"What??  We must go!  They'll surely kill you just as much as me."
"I am not moving until I know the truth!  I want to know everything!"
The creature let out a long sigh and look down at the footwell for a moment.
"Will you come if I tell you everything while walking?  We can't afford to stay in one place for very long."
Allan could see that he wasn't going to get far with his current tactics, so he reluctantly agreed.

     Allan stepped out of the car and felt how much lower the temperature had dropped in only a hour.  The cold bit against his face and hands as his breath condensed into clouds as thick as the ones coming from the engine.
"Hell... why is this happening to me?"
The creature climbed out from the backseat and showed no reaction to the cold air as it stretched its forelimbs outward.
"Makes me almost wish I had a fir coat to keep out the cold," Allan thought to himself.  As he looked down at the skunk, it looked up at him.
"We should head north, through the woods.  If I counted the miles correctly, there should be an abandoned town a few miles away."
"Why should we go there?"
"Because we might find something of use to us."
Allan took a deep breath and breathed into his hands, "I don't suppose there's anyway of talking you out of doing that?"
The creature simply shook its head no.
"Crud.... let me get a few things then," Allan said as he pulled out a backpack and flashlight from the trunk.
With a soft click, a circle of light broke through the darkness of the woods before them.
"It's too cold for this crap..." Allan mumbled.
"I quite agree."

     "Do you even know where you're going??"  Allan asked as low branches dogged his every step.
"I think so..."
Allan suppressed the urge to let the creature know what was on his mind and just changed the conversation.
"Now, I believe you owe me some explanations."
"Yes... I guess that I do."
The skunk slowed down it's pace until it was even to Allan and walked beside him.
"I presume you want to know everything?"
"It would be nice.  Starting with yourself."
"*Sigh*...  I guess I'm what you could call a were-skunk~"
"Hold on a minute," Allan interrupted, "Were-skunk??  As in like were-wolf??  I've never heard of such a thing."
"That's because they didn't exist until the experiments, along with most of the others in the lab I escaped from."
"Lab?  So that bear?"
"Is one of its creations with orders to capture or kill me.  That's why you're in so much danger.  I didn't mean to involve you, but I hadn't counted on the fact that someone would be driving so late in the night.  And now that you've seen me and it, I've practically signed your death warrant.  I-I'm... sorry."
"First you hijack me and now you tell me that some psycho bear wants my head and all you have to say to my is that you're sorry?!?"  fumed Allan.
"What more can I say or do?"
"How about showing me a way out of this nightmare?"
"That's why we're going to the town.  There might be something that will stop our problem cold."
"Oh, yea, we're just going to waltz in and just find silver bullets lying around somewhere."
"You've seen too many movies," the creature said with a chuckle, "It can be killed with one single blow.  The trick is, though, the blow must be sever enough that our regenerative abilities can't cope with it.  An example would be to sever the neck veins with a deep, wide cut."
"Pleasant thought.  Well that does explain how you just walked away from being ran over by my car."
Allan heard a few more chuckles come from the skunk.
"I guess it does."
"You said that you don't have a name, right?"
"Unless you count 'skunk #3, generation one' as one, then no, I don't."
"Not really.  How big of a lab was it?  Was that all it did?"
"I don't know.  We were kept in our cages all the time, except when tests were performed on us."
"Who's this 'we' and 'us?"
"Skunk #4 and myself.  We escaped from the lab together, but he didn't make it far before they tracked him down and shot him."
"I'm sorry.  Just how many were there in the lab?"
"Lots of us.  Cage after cage, row after row, species after species."
"That's not a comforting thought."
"I know..."

     The two walked in relative silence for a while longer as the trees began to finally thin out.  Peeking through the openings was a dark, irregular shaped outline against the sky.  The very idea of even entering a ghost town somewhat unnerved Allan.  Those feelings were not helped by the fact that a giant talking skunk was walking next to him.  Its story was just too fantastic to believe it the proof wasn't also the storyteller.  Things he took as myth and stories were now being thrusted into his face, forcing him to believe things he didn't want to.

     They eventually cleared the treeline into an overgrown field.  Even the sounds of the night seemed to avoid the town; Their steps the only sounds from anything in earshot.  In about ten minutes time, they were on the only road in sight, leading towards the dark shape of the town.  Allan couldn't help but to shiver from the dark, foreboding feelings that overcame him.

     "I don't believe this... I'm stranded in "Mayberry," was all that Allan could think about the town.  It was truly one those backwater places that became stranded in the 1920's and never changed with the times.  Still though, something about the place seemed so very wrong to Allan.
"Something's not right, but I just can't place my finger on it."
The creature paid no attention to him, but instead, stared at the general store just down the street from them.
"Why does seeing this place make me so sad?" it said to no one and everyone.
Allan walked to the front window of the store and peered inside.  Modern-day items lined the shelves of the dark business.  Scanning the neatly stacked rows, it came to him:  The town, it was in too good a shape for being abandoned.  Allan shined his flashlight on the buildings near him.  Nothing was decayed with age or damaged from the elements.  He studied everything for even the smallest clue of why the people left.  He eventually came across as newspaper box and wiped the grime off of the font glass.  Straining to read the yellowed display paper, the printed words disturbed him.  The front-page date was Nov. 20th, 1997.
"My, God...."

     "Please let me be wrong on this," Allan kept repeating over and over to himself.  Walking up to the front door of the first house he came across and tested the front door to find it unlocked.  By this time, the creature had finally broken out of its trance and wandered over to him.
"What are you doing?"
"Praying that my theory's wrong," Allan answered as he cautiously opened the door and entered the house.

     The building was truly a house of ghosts.  Nothing moved.  Nothing but a small clock made any sound.  Allan slowly made his way to the living room while constantly sweeping the light at everything.  The pail moonlight that drifted in from the windows created shadows that played tricks with his mind as he looked around the room.  The skunk mirrored his every move only inches behind him, it's nervousness even evident to Allan's untrained eyes.  The living room was if the family had only just recently stepped out for a moment, yet the layers of dust that covered everything told otherwise.  The air was stale with stagnation; Nothing had entered or left in quite some time, until now.  Allan noticed some pictures hanging on a nearby wall and walked over to them.  With a sleeve, he wiped off the dust covering the front glass of one of them.  Before him was a family photo.  They looked to be a relatively young family with two small children, living in happiness.  But now the house was dark and cold; No one lived here anymore.
"I don't like this at all," stated Allan as he looked over his shoulder, toward the skunk.
It turned out that it was engrossed with something else and Allan wondered what it could be.  He stepped over and knelt down next to the skunk.
"What'cha find?"
The creature didn't answer as it held in its paws/hands as small rag-doll that had been lying on the floor.  With a tip of a claw, the skunk brushed the doll's "hair" from off of the face.  With out taking it's eyes off of the doll, the creature said, "There are only old smells here.  This is a house of the dead, we really should leave."
"I just want to do a quick once-around, then we'll go."
The skunk put the doll in a seated position on the couch, waiting for a child that would probably never return.  The skunk then turned to look at Allan.
"Fine."

     Slowly, Allan made his way through the house, room by room.  The food on the dinner table, the abundance of clothes in dressers and closets, the children's toys on the floor all pointed to the same conclusion:  They had left in a hurry with only the clothes on their backs.  Allan didn't want to even begin thinking about the how and why.  He walked back down the staircase to find the skunk still waiting for him at the bottom.
"This town wasn't just abandoned, it was left to disappear with the elements.  Something happened here and I'm afraid to ask what it was."
"I'm afraid to ask, too..."

     They stepped outside into the last fleeting rays of the moon as it began to disappear behind the treeline.
"Let's see if we can get into the general store.  I'm getting pretty hungry and the canned foods should still be good."  Allan said as he patted his stomach.
"That's a good idea.  I could use something to eat myself."
The two sauntered over the store and found the front doors to be locked.  With a curse Allan thought for a moment of what to do.  A flash of inspiration came across his face as he ran over to the paper machine and lifted it up with a "herragghhh!"
"Watch out!" Allan yelled at his companion.
The skunk put up it's front paws with the words, "No, don't, stop, wait!!" stuck on it's tongue.
With a yell of manliness, Allan chunked the machine through one of the display windows.  With an explosion of sound that seemed to echo forever, the window shattered in a spiderweb of cracks that rained glass shards in every direction.
"Was that necessary???" the creature asked with an aggravated tone while shaking a few stray shards off of itself.
"Sorry.  It seemed like a good idea at the time...."  Allan sheepishly said as he looked at the carnage he had just created.
In the air still hung the echo of the explosion as Allan carefully climbed over the glass and opened the front door for the skunk to come in through.

     Inside the store, the paper machine rested upside down leaning against a refrigerated cabinet that held dairy products in various stages of decay.  Allan didn't linger next to it long as he got a whiff of the smell wafting from cracks in the insulation on the front door.  The skunk watched him scoot away fairly fast and it could have sworn that his face was now a nice shade of green.  With a little huff of a laugh, the creature wandered down an isle, looking at the various foodstuffs.  Most were spoiled, with the exceptions of the canned items, their odor leaving a bile and noxious tinge in its nose.  The skunk read some of the labels and found nothing that interested it in having for dinner.  Many items it had never heard off or remembered what they were.  It decided to just wait for Allan and hopped up on the front counter and laid down.  The creature could see that Allan was off in the far corner, fighting with something bulky.
"What did you find?" it called out to him.
"A camping stove!  And there's even butane refills here!"
Allan lugged it up the front of the store with a little bottle and a few cans of food.
"Hope this thing works.  I'm not relishing the idea of cold stew for dinner."
Allan pored the bottle of fuel into the stove and pressurized the tank.  As he lit the burner a huge crash echoed through the entire building.  Allan and the skunk looked at each other.
"Is that supposed to do that?" it asked him.
"Not that I know of."
"It sounded like it came from the back room."
Allan and the creature cautiously approached the door to the back storeroom when it suddenly exploded outward off of its hinges.  The door squarely caught the skunk in the body before it could get out of the way and both the door and itself went tumbling a good distance backward.  Allan turned his eyes from the creature, which incidentally wasn't moving, to the empty doorframe.  Filling it was the bear that they had only so recently escaped.

     "OH MY, GOD!!!!!!!!" Allan yelled as he dove for cover from the huge paw seeking to take his head off.  The bear only managed to severely damage to counter with its swipe and that only infuriated the bear even more.  With a savage roar, the bear caught Allan with a backside blow as Allan tried to run for the knife display.  Allan went tumbling into the other front window, the one that wasn't broken, with a sick thud.  A groan escaped Allan's lips from the impact and he slid down the glass and onto the floor.  He tried to stand back up, but his vision and equilibrium were not cooperating.  The bear walked over to him and just picked him up as if he wasn't anything more that a sheet of paper in the breeze with one paw.  With what could have been a smile on the bear's muzzle, it drove the other paw's claws straight through Allan's chest.  Allan cried out as the claws impacted on the glass behind him and left spiderwebs.  As Allan's vision began to darken and tunnel, the last thoughts to cross his mind was his family, waiting for him to come home.  "I'm sorry I won't make it, " he whispered.  As his vision blacked over completely, the last sight he saw was the bear and a black blur covering its neck.

     A distant voice called his name through the darkness...
"allan... please, wake up, allan...."
The blackness his mind floated in couldn't block that out.  Allan could feel that he was alive, the pain was too great to be anything else.  He wanted to open his eyes, but his body refused to cooperate.  The trauma imposed upon him gripped his will like an iron trap.  But, with each attempt to free him of the blackness, that grip weakened just that much.
"As...pir...ine...," finally escaped from his dry throat in a weak, cracked voice.
"Allan?!  How do you feel??"
"Oohhh.....not that good..."
Allan's eyes slowly opened to stare into the steel grays of the skunk's.
"What happ... AARRGHH!!"
A bolt of pain derailed Allan's train of thought.  His shoulder felt as if it was on fire, the pain in his chest paling in comparison.  With a hiss of agony, he slowly reached a hand to his shoulder and peeled away his blood-soaked shirt.
"GOD, my shoulder!"  Allan yelled through clenched teeth.  The shirt was like duck tape to his skin as it was slowly pulled off.  Finished, Allan was sorry that he had looked.  On his shoulder was a set of puncture wounds in a tight oval.
"Oh, God, no...," Allan looked up at the skunk with pleading eyes, "Please tell me you didn't..."
The creature couldn't even look at him directly in the face, "I had too... There was no other way to save you."
Allan felt his stomach fall out as he stared blankly.  He looked up at the town for answers, but found none.
"Why didn't you just let me die?  Why did you condemn me to your fate??"
"I-I just couldn't let you die.  Not here, not like that..."
Allan could see the tears beginning to form in the skunk's eyes.  He had been given the chance to cheat death, but at what cost?

     The sun shined overhead as Allan unsteadily stepped out of the store and leaned against the window.  His stomach was sick from the sight and smell of the carnage that had taken place inside.  The building stank of death from the headless corpse inside and Allan needed the fresh air to think.  His burning shoulder, a constant reminder of what had happen only hours ago.

     Under the light of the morning sun, the town seemed peaceful and inviting as Allan stared down the main street.
"What am I going to do now??" he thought to himself, "How can everything go so wrong, so fast?"
As he stood there, he heard come from behind, "Allan?"
Allan didn't move or say a word in response.
"Allan, I understand why you're so upset.  I had no right to just destroy your life like this, with this curse of mine.  I-I'm sorry...."
Allan gently touched his shoulder and sighed as felt the breaks in the skin the bite had left.
"No, I don't know what I'm feeling anymore.  You were just trying to help me, that I know.  That I know..."
Allan turned and looked at his companion, "The question is, now, where do we go from here?"
"We go back to the house.  You need to rest.  Tonight will be a long night for the both of us."

     "I thought you said that you are a were-skunk?  Aren't you supposed to change back in the morning or something?"  Allan asked the skunk as it helped him across the street to the home they had left the night before.  Only after Allan slowly laid down on the couch, did the creature answer the question.
"The lab did something to us that keeps us like this."
"Do you remember what you used to look like?"
"No... I don't remember anything of the distant past... I wish I did..."
By the sound of the skunk's voice, Allan was sorry that he had asked the question.  A painful nerve was hit with the creature and it made Allan feel bad that he had touched on the subject.
"Tell me about your past..." the skunk asked as it put its paw/hand on top of Allan's.

     Allan told his stories of life at collage and his family as the minutes slowly past.  The creature never said a word in response, listening to everything in total silence.  He had been talking for a good two hours before running out of things to say.
"I was on my way home for Christmas break when I 'ran' into you."
The skunk slowly broke eye contact and thought deeply for a moment.
"I wish that I had a family or someone to share my feelings with.  To just be alone in a glass and stone room, it was so hard for me.  The people in the lab never talked, never did anything with us.  They just gave us food and water; letting us rot in solitary, alone and hurting."
"It must have been terrible.  No wonder you risked your life to escape."
"Even to have died trying was a better alternative than to live any longer in the cages."
"......"
"You should rest now. Things will be rough for you tonight."
Allan laid his head down on the couch armrest, turned over and fell asleep with dreams of cubes and silence.

     Gentle shaking awoke Allan out of his sleep with a jolt.
"Wake up, Allan.  It's almost moonrise."
"Wha...??  What's going on??"
The large black blur in front of his eyes slowly sharpened into the image of the creature.
"The sun is starting to go down.  It's best if you were fully awake and got out of your clothes."
"What???  I am not going to just stand around naked...."
"Your shoulder..." the skunk interjected mid-sentence.
Allan just stopped talking completely with his mouth stuck open.
"Shit..." he mumbled.
Allan sat there, with his head in his hands for a few moments.
"I forgot about that," came through between the fingers in a muffled voice, "I don't suppose you can just take back your curse now that I'm better?"
"It doesn't quite work that way, not that I don't wish it did," the skunk said trying not to show any emotion.
"If you're trying to cheer me up, you're failing miserably," Allan said with a smile.
The skunk looked up at Allan and let out a little laugh, "I guess I am."

     "I am still not going to just stand around naked," Allan said as he watched through a window the sun disappear behind the town's buildings.
"If you're just being modest, I'm naked, too, you know."
Allan just glared at the skunk.
"It's the principle of the matter!"
The skunk shook its head a few times, "I'm just trying to keep you from ruining a good set of clothes.  I don't think those pants of yours are going to fare well with one of these in it."
For emphasis, it swished it's huge, bushy tail about.
Allan grumbled for a few moments in frustration.
"Fine, I'll do it, but! I'm doing it my way."
The skunk watched Allan storm upstairs with a perplexed look on its face.

     The skunk listened to Allan bang about upstairs for about ten minutes before he reappeared wearing only a towel about his waist.
"You look absolutely foolish, Allan."
"So?  I told you I'm not just going to sit around in the buff."
The creature couldn't help chuckling at his words.
"How long before anything happens?"  Allan asked as he sat down with a long face on the couch.
"Something already has.  I can see that your hair's become darker with a hint of a strip right down the middle,” the skunk replied with what looked like a smile.
"I am not amused."
It was then that Allan noticed how uncomfortable feeling his shoulder had become.  He gently reached up and slowly began to massage it.  With each motion, though, the discomfort grew until the invisible flames once again consumed the wounds.  With a grimace of pain, Allan just gripped his shoulder as the flames spread through every bone, muscle, and vein in his body.  Allan sank off of the couch and onto his knees and hands.
"Make the pain stop!  Make it stop!!"  he screamed to the room.
The skunk only watched in silent contemplation.

     The sound of his own pulse filled Allan's ears as his sight tinted red as if he was experiencing what pilots called a "red-out."  He could feel the bones shifting, reshaping, under the skin as the arms lengthened and the legs shortened a bit.  Allan watched in agony his fingers begin to shorten and widen into a hybrid hand/paw and the nails blacken and lengthen into long, blunt claws.  He closed his eyes, not wanting to see any more.  Allan felt the sensation of his hip folding over from bipedal to quadruped, the stretching of the jaw as his face began to lengthen into a muzzle, and the shifting of the ears upward as they rounded out into the proper shape of a skunk's.  The pain of the flames began to subside as Allan felt his spine extend almost twice it's original length. Finally came an odd sensation; His body felt as if it had fallen asleep.  Allan opened his eyes to see the beginnings of a fir coat sprouting out of every inch of his skin.  Quickly, it filled out into a long, thick coat of flat black.  Allan's throbbing pulse quieted and his vision changed from that of the red tint to a muted grayscale, letting him see every detail in the room as clearly as day.  Allan finally collapsed to the floor, his body shaking from the adrenaline that had flooded his system.

     His mind was blank, unable to grasp what had just taken place and not wanting to accept the reality of the change.  From what seemed to be an entire universe away, someone called out to him, "It's over, Allan.  You made it alright."
"I-i-it is...?" Allan forced out of a mouth that didn't want to move.
"Rest for a few minutes.  Don't move, let your body become adjusted to itself."
"I can't feel anything..."
"It will all come back in time.  Just rest."
The skunk took the towel off of Allan's new waist and draped it over him as a make-shift blanket, "Just rest...."

     Allan stared at the far wall from him for what seemed to be an eternity as brain slowly reattached itself back to his body.  The skunk kept watching him, as if it was expecting something bad to happen and that made him feel just how much of a knot his stomach was in with fear, confusion, and hunger.  Those feelings finally forced him to find the power to lift himself up off of the ground.  Allan slowly stood up in an unsteady fashion.  "This can't be right," he thought to himself as his eyelevel still remained lower than the couch.  "STAND UP!!"  he yelled at his brain and it yelled back that he was.  Allan slowly turned his neck and looked down his side.  He saw that he was standing, only on four legs.
"My God..." he quietly said as he looked at his body of black fur, "I-I-I'm..."
"One of us, now," the creature completed for him.

     A tiny voice in the back of Allan's mind kept saying over and over that this was not happening to him.  Yet, he knew that his life was changed beyond even what his wildest dreams couldn't even conceive.  Allan slowly took his first steps as a were-skunk and was surprised by how his body acted as if it always had four legs.
"How am I going to explain this?!?" he said to no one in particular.
"Explain what?"
"That I'm a giant frigging skunk to my family!  You have no idea of what I'm feeling mow!  To just have your life shot all to hell in one day!  One day!"  Allan said as fear and sadness began to crack his voice.
"You're right, I don't know.  For as long as I can remember, I've always been like this."
Allan took a deep breath and sighed.  As he inhaled, his nose was overwhelmed by the odors and scents he had never smelled before.  One particular scent interested him over the rest and it seemed to be coming from the creature's direction.  Allan turned toward it and took another deep breath.  Yes, it was definitely coming from her.
"Wait a minute....'her'??!?!"  Allan thought.
Allan took another sniff and his brain came to the same conclusion:  female.

     The skunk could tell by the perplexed look on Allan's face that her secret had been figured out.
"You've smelled my scent, haven't you?"
From the way Allan looked away, she knew the answer was 'yes.'
"I guess it was inevitable that you would find out," she said with a skunk's equivalent to a shrug.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Allan asked with a peeved tone of voice.
"I didn't think it mattered... That and I didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable."
"Things are way beyond uncomfortable right now."  To be truthful, Allan wasn't sure of what he feeling were anymore, "So, where do we go from here?"
"The lab will sooner or later realize that their little friend didn't finish his job.  A replacement is bound to show up.  We should take this chance to rest before having to deal with that inevitable problem."
"That was something I didn't want to hear, but I guess you're right.  Though, there is one thing that I want to do before closing my eyes tonight..."

     With that, Allan slowly climbed the front stairs and padded down the hallway into the bathroom.  With a pushoff with his front legs, he lifted himself onto the sink counter-top.  Allan involuntarily stopped breathing for a second the moment he caught his reflection in the mirror.  With a hand/paw, he felt his new face.  The only features that showed his human side were his eyes, the blues irises barely showing from how dilated his eyes were in the dark room.  Allan tilted his head slightly and for a brief moment, saw his eyes reflect like a cat's.  "That explains why I can see so well," he softly said.

     Eventually, Allan couldn't stand to look at himself any longer and dropped down from the sink.  He didn't blame her for making him this way.  She was only trying to save his life the only was she could.  Why couldn't she have been a doctor instead of a were-skunk?  Hell, for all he knew, maybe she was before that mysterious lab she kept mentioning.  Yes, if there was anything on which to place the blame, it was the lab.

     Allan stepped out of the bathroom to find her waiting outside.
"If it's any consolation, I think you look very nice for a giant skunk."
The unexpected voice startled him as his fur involuntarily rose, making him look like a giant puffball.
"Geeze, don't do that!"  and then the compliment soaked in, "Really?"  He felt his ears starting to burn with embarrassment.
"Are you just saying that to make me feel better?"
"Yes and no," was the answer.
A furry white eyebrow raised in curiosity on Allan's face.

     "Since I'm responsible for your new self, I feel that I should teach you how to live with four legs," the skunk said to Allan as he sat on the couch with his tail in his hands/paws, looking at it closely.
"Oh, I'm sorry... I was lost in my thoughts.  Did you say something?"
"Are you that fascinated by your tail?"
"Well never having one before...," Allan let go of his tail and hopped off of the couch, "Is this conversation really necessary?"
The skunk waived her tail about as she let out a short chuckle, "I'm sorry... but I've never had the chance to watch a person after their first change.  It's been quite amusing," she said with a smile.
"Well, I'm glad at least one of us is enjoying this.  Maybe when I get home, I'll just stay locked in my apartment during the full moon."
"Think about that for a moment.  Don't you thing that people will notice you disappearing for almost a week each month?"
"Wait a minute, what the hell do you mean by 'almost a week'??!?!?!?  There's only one full moon a month!"
"Just according to that calendar.  For all intents and purposes, the lunar cycle moves slow enough that there are three to four nights a month that can affect you."
"What??!?!"
Allan just collapsed sideways from shock and twitched.

     "Are there any more lovely facts that you've forgotten to tell me about??" Allan fumed.
"Nothing comes to mind."
"Well, that's good.  And if something does, please keep it to yourself.  I can't take any more surprises tonight."
"Oh, don't be like that."
"I'll be angry if I want to."
It was then that Allan turned toward the front window and stared out of it.
"What is it, Allan?" the skunk asked after a few seconds of silence.
"Do you hear something?"

shoomp, shoomp, shoomp, shoomp, shoomp, shoomp,......

The skunk cocked her head for a moment, "Now that you mention it..."

Shoomp, Shoomp, Shoomp, Shoomp,.........

"That sounds like helicopters.  And they're getting closer."

SHoomp, SHoomp, SHoomp, SHoomp,............

"We've got to get out of here NOW!!!  Those lesson will have to wait.  We've got to, Allan!!"

SHOomp, SHOomp, SHOomp, SHOomp,............

Allan didn't try to argue the point as they bolted out the front door.  The two turned to at the distant woods they came out of the day before and saw them against the night sky:  Black helicopters, slowly combing the woods and headed straight for the town.

"What do we do now???"  Allan asked in total panic.
"I don't know, Allan.  I don't know..."

     The skunk looked toward Allan with fear in her eyes, "I didn't expect them to come so fast."
"Well, I'm not waiting around for those things to get here," Allan said in return.
"Follow me to the side streets.  Hopefully someone won't see us that way."

     Allan followed the skunk as she weaved through the streets and alleyways.  He couldn't shake the unnerving feeling about how smoothly she chose which way to go, almost as if she knew the town by heart.  The buildings they ran past were just blurs in their vision from the speed they moving at.  After only a few short minutes of hard running, the end of the town rapidly came into the view of the two fugitives.
"So, where do we go from here??"  Allan gasped in-between breaths.
The skunk just suddenly stopped at the end of the street as Allan tripped over his own feet trying to avoid running her over.  After rolling to a stop, Allan looked at her with an extremely peeved expression on his face.
"Damn!  At least warn me before you decide to just stop like that!"
"Sorry...  Look," she replied, pointing at the distant treeline.
"Wha....?"  Allan asked as he turned his head.
He squinted and stared at the trees, trying to see what is was she was pointing at.  Just in his visual perception were bobbing dots of light, disappearing and reappearing in-between the trees.
"Oh, shit..." Allan quietly said, "How are we going to get out of this??"
The skunk didn't answer as she just stared at the treeline.
Finally, she said, "I don't see any lights over there," and pointed at a section of trees.
"It's a trap... a clear-cut trap."
"What do you mean?"
"They're trying to funnel us into one particular spot.  Gods know what's waiting for us there.  I sure as Hell don’t want to find out."
"Then we punch a hole in their 'funnel' and stop this chase cold."
"Are you crazy?!?"
"If my idea works, I'll make those foxes in the lab look sane."
"Please tell me you just didn't say that..." groaned Allan.

     "Follow me, Allan... and don't say a thing, don't even breath loud."
With that, the skunk took off directly toward the largest group of lights.
"I hope you know what you’re doing..." Allan said before bringing his own four legs up to speed.

     Allan pushed his new body as hard as he could to try to keep up with her.  As they approached the woods, the sound of excited voices suddenly filled the air.  Then suddenly, the skunk broke left into the woods and was followed by a startled cry.  As Allan entered the woods, he had to leap over the body of a young soldier lying on the ground.  Allan didn't bother to even slow down to see if the man was alive or dead.  To be truthful, he didn't want to know.  Just ahead in the darkness, he could make out the bobbing white lines of the skunk's tail and focused all of his energy to keep them in sight.   A noise from behind made Allan take a brief look behind to see several lights gathering about where the man was.  He looked forward again, but now could no longer see the stripes.
"Oh, shit..." Allan mumbled as he began to slow down his pace.  "Dammit,  she really needs a name so I could at least call something out and find her... *sigh*..."
Allan began to wander in an erratic path to try and pick up the trail.  There was nothing, the trail was impossibly cold in only a few seconds, not even the faintest trace of her scent in the air.
"Shit.." he mumbled again as Allan came to a stop and just hung his head.

     The sound of voices snapped Allan's head around.  His stomach knotted at the sight of multiple lights heading directly for him.  In a panic, he began to run, but something from behind suddenly grabbed him and dragged him back into an enclosed spot.
"Don't make a sound, Allan," a voice said as a hand clamped his muzzle shut.
Allan just nodded his head and the hand came off.  He turned to see the skunk staring at some point beyond him as voices steadily grew louder.  Allan closed his eyes and began to silently pray to every saint he could think of.

     Eventually the sounds died away with distance and Allan found the courage to open his eyes to see that they were alone in their hiding place.
"You know, I'm getting really tired of these close calls," he said to the skunk.
"Yes, this time it was too close.  How could they have found us so fast?"
"I'm almost willing to bet there was a tracking device on that bear, all they had to do was set up a dragnet around it and close in the gap.  And it almost worked..." Allan motioned around the cave with a hand, "How did you know about this place?"
"I didn't.  After I bowled over that guy, I just kinda stumbled into it," the skunk said with a sheepish look on her face, "Shall we just bunker down here for the night?"
"Yes, let's,” Allan said with a tone of voice the skunk wasn't quite sure of what to make of it.

     That night had been so very cold.  Allan and the skunk had meshed their bodies into one large ball of fur, sharing body heat in an attempt to survive the freezing temperature.  Eventually, the morning came to chase off the night and it's coldness.  Allan was awaken by a thin shaft of light that had found its mark directly in his left eye.  After five minutes of tossing and turning, he finally gave up and opened his eyes to the new day.

     Allan carefully untangled himself from the skunk, as not to wake her up, and walked over the entrance of the cave.  The little sunshine that was able to penetrate the tree canopy warmed his body.  As he looked about, Allan couldn't see anyone in the forest, but it still didn't make him feel any easier.  For no reason at all, he looked down at the ground and then immediately wished he hadn't.  Allan's heart froze at the sight of four legs still underneath him, even though it was daylight.

     "Oh my God!  Wake up!!" he cried out to the skunk.
"Wha...?  What's going on?  What's wrong, Allan?"
Allan was starting to break down as he replied, "I-I'm... still a skunk... I didn't change back..."
That brought the skunk to full continuousness in a heartbeat.
"Oh no... There's no way what the lab did to me could have transferred to you.  It couldn't have!"
"How can I ever go home like this??!?  You've destroyed my life and now I'm stuck as a freak!"  Allan sobbed.
"Calm down..." the skunk said as she embraced him and tried to comfort Allan as best as she could, "This war isn't over yet.  I won't let my fate be yours as well."

     "Stay here, I won't be long," the skunk said to Allan before stepping out of the cave.  Allan didn't notice as he stayed in a small ball of depression.  The sight of that brought a slow sigh out of the skunk before she disappeared into the forest.

     The skunk retraced the path she had ran only the night before as she kept all of her senses alert for the slightest thing wrong.  As she ran, the wind gusted up briefly and carried on it the smell of death.  The odor made the skunk wince as she cautiously approached the area from which it seemed to emanate from.  The skunk wished that she could have just gone around it, but the spot laid directly in her path.  As she drew closer, she could see something lying on the ground, face down.  She recognized the thing as the young man that she had bowled over last night.  As the skunk drew closer, she could see that a large part of his skull was missing and several bullet holes riddled his body.  She gasped at the sight in horror.  "How could they do such a thing?" she wondered before giving the body one last look and then finishing her trip back into the town.

     The skunk peered around a corner before bounding across the main street in the heart of town.  She had slowed her progress down considerably after crossing the town limits in fear of traps, but she couldn't find any evidence that anyone was still around.  As she wondered into the center of town, she walked up to the general store and peeked inside.  The store was exactly as she and Allan had left it, except for one thing:  The body of the bear had been removed and the carnage cleaned up.  "Employees are expendable, I guess, but always reclaim the experiments...  Alive or dead," she softly said to the shelves, "Why did they have to kill that kid??  Why??"

      She entered the store, grabbed a backpack from a stand and then proceeded to fill it with canned foods.  Struggling for a few moments, she figured out how to strap it onto her back and grabbed another backpack in her mouth as she turned to leave.  The skunk then looked about the town for a moment before padding across the street to the house that they had "borrowed" for the remainder of their stay in the town.  She cracked the door and listened for any sounds inside.  Satisfied that there were none out of the ordinary, she slowly entered and began a search for Allan's clothes.  She found them in the upstairs bathroom and stuffed them into the second backpack.  With a full load on her back and in her mouth, the skunk left the house and hurried out of town and back toward the cave.

     As she walked through the woods, the skunk became aware of a presence following her at a distance.  She focused her sense of hearing to her rear and heard the clear snap of a twig; Someone was definitely following her.  "I can't let them find Allan," she thought to herself.  The skunk began walking in the wrong direction to the cave, acting as if it was the right way to begin with.  It seemed to work as her "tail" (pun intended) turned in step to the new direction as well.  The skunk dropped the backpack from her mouth and acted as if she was taking a rest, when in fact, she was using her senses to zero in on her follower's position.  "Bingo..."

     In a blur of speed, she suddenly bolted into the undergrowth and disappeared from sight.  From the tall brush came a startled cry as the skunk leapt at the person and landed right on target.  The skunk looked down to see, to her surprise, a large rat that had fainted dead away underneath her paws.  "What in the hell???!?"

     She took a bottle of water from out of her backpack and dumped it in the rat's face.  The rat sputtered and coughed into the land of the conscious.  As he looked upward, he cried out a squeak of terror that only a rodent could when the skunk moved closer to his face and did a growl that could have frozen water.
"You've better start explaining yourself very quickly before I rip out your throat!"
The rat started stuttering incoherent babble before the skunk gripped his muzzle shut.
"Shut up, slow down, and start again."
The rat just nodded and did as he was told, "I'm like you, I escaped from the lab."
"Mmm-hmm... a little convient that team was running about and now you show up," the skunk said in a flat voice.
"That team was looking for me."
"And I'm the fairy tooth-skunk.  Tell me, then, if you're an escapee, why are you sneaking around behind me?"
"I wanted to make sure you weren't part of that team.  All of us heard about the two that made it out, but we didn't know what species the two were.  "
"Funny you should mention being a part of the team..." the skunk said as she raised a furry eyebrow, "I'm going to get off or you now, but just even think about moving and that will be your last thought ever."
The waves of fear coming off of the rat kicked up a couple of notches after that statement.

     "So, just how did you hear about the escape?"
"One of the foxes overheard it from a tech and well, the news traveled fast."
"How could it have, we were kept in separated sections and had no communication with other cells?"
"After you escaped, they condensed us all into one main block for tighter security.  When they were moving me into the wing, I took the opportunity to get away."
"And that was how?" the skunk asked, her expression never changing from stone-faced.
"I tail-whipped the guard and climbed into the AC ducts and out an air vent."
"Those air vents are covered with electrified grates, they would have fried you with one touch."
The rat held up his paws, they were covered with deep electrical burns, "I know... the hard way.  And how would you know about that?"
The skunk let out a deep sigh, "The other Were I escaped with accidentally knocked a guard into one during the break-out."
"Well, that explains the bad smell in the air since the escape."
"Ewww..."
"Ewww, indeed."

     The skunk thought for a few moments, "I guess you're telling the truth, I don't smell anything off-key.  But, you’re leading the way and one wrong move, well let's not think about that."
"How can you smell lies??"
"I just can."
"But I don't know where to go."
"I'll tell you the directions, now let's get going."

     The skunk kept a distance of only a few feet the entire journey back to the cave.
"Take the left path.  Now hold it."
" What's here?"
"Never mind that for the moment.  Allan?" The skunk stuck her head into the cave with a worried expression on her muzzle, "Allan, are you alright?"
On the ground was Allan in a tight little ball, occasionally twitching or muttering something.
"Allan, I've got some good news.  The reason why you haven't changed back is because of a chance occurrence in nature.  When I was running around, I just happened to see that the moon is still visible in the sky.  That has to be why you didn't revert back."
Allan didn't move a muscle.
"Hmm...." The skunk took the same bottle she used on the rat and poured the rest on Allan.
"AAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!"  Allan actually cleared two feet straight up and landed on all four, his fur (the parts that weren't matted down by water, that is) bristling out in every direction.
"Now that I have your attention..."
"THAT WASN'T FUNNY!!!" Allan growled.
"I wasn't trying to be.  If it just turns out to be moon staying out in the morning, then you should be fine.  Anyways, we have a more important problem to deal with now."
"What could be more important?"  Allan asked with a dreary tone.
"A third person to this mess," the skunk said as she pointed toward the rat sitting outside of the cave.
"Who's the hell is that???"
"I'm really not quite sure... either a fellow escapee, or a trap waiting to happen."

     "You just bring along a person you've never seen before just because he maybe "a fellow escapee?!?"
"Well, I just couldn't let him follow me around the way he was," the skunk nodded toward the rat, "He was making enough noise that even you could have picked him out.  Now, think of that in terms of a professional squad that is specifically looking for us."
"Mmm... you can look at it like that, but," Allan dropped his voice to a whisper, "What if he's that squad?"
The skunk did the same with her voice, "We had a nice discussion about that already," she glanced back at the rat, "I somewhat sure he isn't."
"Somewhat?" Allan asked with a face of doubt.
"Look, I know this whole thing is a mess, but it's on my head.  You.. you just need to cheer up."
"And how, pray tell, do you expect me to do so when things like this keep happening to you and me??"
"I understand... Listen, maybe we should be disappearing now.  I don't think it's safe to be staying in one place too long now."
"Yea, but where too?  I don't think the town's safe anymore and by the maps, there's nothing for ten's, if not hundreds of miles.  Hell, the nearest town was still at least a three hour drive before I "ran into" you."
"That was bad, very bad..."

      "So where are we going to be tromping off to?" Allan asked as he and the skunk stepped out of the cave.
"Back to the lab?"
"That's not funny!"
"It was only a suggestion."
Allan just glared at her.

     "So this is the person you escaped with?" the rat asked the skunk.
"Yes," she quickly replied.
Allan was about to object when she bapped him in the back of the head with her tail.
"Play along," followed even faster into his ear.
"Were you two cellmates?" the rat asked.
Allan and the skunk just nodded.
"I though one didn't make it, so how can there be the two of you?"
"We were the only two to survive from a group of escapees," the skunk answered.
"Sounds reasonable."
Allan could feel his stomach just knotting up with each word, "As if this whole thing isn't complicated enough," he mumbled.
"What was that?" the rat asked.
"Nothing... we should get moving before the next group starts mucking about the woods."
"I quite agree," the skunk said after him.

     For some time, the three walked in a line through the woods in silence.  Allan watched the rat in front of him with an expressionless muzzle.  Every now and then, he would glance back at the skunk as if he wanted to say something, but never did and just turned back to the front.  Eventually, Allan slowed his pace and dropped back to be side by side with the skunk.
"I've been thinking," he said, "And I keep coming across the same questions over and over."
"Hmm?" the skunk churred.
"All you remember is your time spent in the lab, correct?"
"Yes."
"Then how could you have known about the town?  Better yet, how did you move about the town at top speed and know exactly which way to go without a single hesitation the entire way?"
The skunk didn't answer for a few moments, "I really can't answer... It was almost as if I just knew."
"I figured that would be your reply."
The skunk looked at Allan with a puzzled expression, "What are you trying to get at?"
"I don't really know myself.  It's as if each answer just leads to more questions,"  Allan said with a half-truth.  He held his breath, hoping that she wouldn't pick up on it.  He had a thought about what was the connection between her and the town, but he didn't want to start flinging theories without solid proof.  The skunk didn't say anything about it and Allan worked to change the subject before she did.
"You know, it would be nice to be able to call you by a name."
"Aww, what's wrong with '#3, generation one?" she asked with a slight smile.
"Bit of a mouthful to get out, don't you think?"
"I never thought about it, because I've never need one."
Allan gave her a strange look for that answer.
"The techs just called me '#3' and I only was ever allowed to talk to one other person, #4."
Allan let out a little huff at the reason she gave.

     "But seriously, when you just disappeared last night, what was I to do?  Call out "hey, you skunk?" Allan asked.
"It would have gotten my attention."
"Yea, and every soldier within ear shot," Allan said with a half smile, "Call me kooky, but I don't thing that would have been a good thing."
"Maybe," the skunk replied with her own half smile.
"What do you think of  'Mephistia?"
"A bit of play on words?"
"Well, what else was I to do all night long, stare at the dirt?  So I've got too much imagination."
"I wasn't complaining.  Actually, I think it's somewhat fitting."
"Really?"
"Really," Mephistia said with a smile.
Allan just returned the gesture before taking his place back in the middle of the line.

     The walk was very uneventful, which Allan found to be very refreshing from all of the running and hiding of the night before.  He listened to the sounds of the forest as the three of them walked slowly through the trees.  What Allan didn't notice, though, was how Mephistia kept sweeping her head back and forth, looking and listening for anything and everything.  Suddenly, the rat let out a startled cry and jumped backwards into Allan and knocking them both down.  From out of a bush flew a small morning dove that took to the air in a haphazard flightpath.  The rat looked backwards at Allan with a sheepish expression.
"S-sorry..." the rat squeaked out.
Allan just glared at him.
After the rat had gotten off from on top of him, Allan looked back at Mephistia to see her laughing, "Mmm-hmm, go ahead and laugh."
Mephistia got a hold of herself and wiped her eyes dry, "Sorry....  You should have seen the look on both of your faces...  I couldn't resist it."
"Gee, thanks....  You sure know how to make a person feel good."
Mephistia did a four-legged version of a shrug and then said, "Let's take a break and you can cool off, Allan."
Allan grumbled something and just laid down.  Mephistia shook her head and then moved behind Allan.  As he just laid there, Mephistia reached down and scritched in-between Allan's ears.  Almost immediately, Allan closed his eyes and leaned into Mephistia's paw.  What really brought a smile to Mephistia muzzle was when Allan actually started to churr in contented bliss.
"See, there are positive things to being a were-skunk," she whispered into his ear.
Allan was oblivious to her remark as his throat softly rumbled in time to the movement of her claws.

     Allan slowly came back into reality as Mephistia slowed her skritchings and eventually stopped.
"Just like an overgrown pet..." she said with a smile, "How about some lunch while we're just lying around?"
Allan looked up at her with half-opened eyes and a drawn out churr.  The rat, on the other hand, whole-heartedly agreed to the thought.  Mephistia opened her backpack and took out a few of the supplies that wouldn't need heating to be eaten.
As the three sat around and ate, Allan asked, "God... just what did you do to me?  I had never felt so good in my life."
"Simple, I just petted you," Mephistia replied in-between bites.
"You... petted... me???" Allan asked flabbergasted.  Allan could now feel his ears starting to burn in embarrassment as he let his head hang low.
"No need to be embarrassed by it, Allan.  Even I would have reacted the same way if we were in the opposite positions."
That statement made Allan feel like sinking even lower into the ground.
"Do I have to do it again?" Mephistia asked as she started to move closer to Allan, flexing her paws.
"Acckk!  No!  That's quite alright!"  Allan said in a panic as he jumped to all four and began backing away from her.
Both Mephistia and the rat had a good long laugh at that.

     The trio took their time with lunch, but eventually they packed up and started walking again.  Again things were uneventful, until Allan all of a sudden just stopped in mid-stride and let out a groan of pain.
"Allan!  Are you alright?!?"  Mephistia asked as she rushed to his side.
"I.. don't feel .. so go~"
Allan didn't finish his sentence as he rushed off into the bushes.  From them came the sound of retching and then silence.
"Allan??"  Mephistia asked with a worried tone.
A cry of triumph suddenly exploded from the undergrowth as a very human looking body also popped out
"I'm back to normal!!"  Allan cried out.
"Um, Allan...."  Mephistia said as she pointed toward him.
"Huh...?  AH, GEEZE!"  Allan said as he looked down to see himself standing there, naked.
Just as quickly as he had appeared, Allan disappeared back into the bushes, followed by a few curses and a lot of rustling.

     In a few minutes, he came back out in the clothes that were packed into his backpack.
Mephistia looked up at him, "You know, this is only going to be a short-lived victory when the moon comes back out tonight."
Allan's face dropped from a smile to a glare in a split-second, "Thank you for just killing all the joy in this moment..."
"Sorry...  I was just reminding you about how the lunar cycle works.  I wasn't trying to be mean."
"I know, but can't I have one moment of happiness with out reality crashing down on top of me???"
It was then that Allan noticed that the rat had taken a strong interest in him, "What's the matter?"
The rat stuttered a times before finally getting the words out, "Y-y-you changed!?!  How could you?!?  No one is supposed to be able to, how could you have changed??!?"
Allan muttered a mental "Uh-oh..." after remembering what Mephistia had told him about the lab and what they did to her, "Oh, shit!  How am I going to explain this and not blow the cover story?????"
Mephistia went into the same panic mode and quickly tried to create some BS answer in her mind before Allan could say something that would muck the whole thing up, "He, er... um..."
"I don't know why I can change.  The first time it happened was shortly after escaping.  Maybe my body rejected what ever it was they did to me and it didn't manifest itself until then.  It's just a guess..."
Mephistia heart just froze the moment she heard Allan say the first word and waited a panicked-filled minute for the rat's response.  The rat didn't say a word, he only looked at Allan with a dumbstricken expression.  Allan was beginning to feel very uncomfortable with the two sets of eyes staring straight at him an not a single word being said by anyone.
"Um... shall we keep on moving?" he asked to try and remove the strange gazes from himself.

     Allan kept his distance from the rat as they walked and even avoided eye contact with Mephistia.  He felt very out of place on two legs again with his current company and was worried about just how long he could keep from blowing everything out into the open.
"You as nervous as I am?" Mephistia quietly asked Allan.
"I'm surprised that I can't smell my emotions right now..."
"Egads, I still can't believe you came up with a decent line of BS that fast."
"It's called panic," Allan said with a half-smile.
Suddenly, Mephistia came to a full stop and looked to her behind.
"What?  You hear something?" Allan asked worriedly.
Mephistia shooshed him quiet and then swung her head all about.
"Something's coming up fast behind us.  We're in big trouble if it's what I think it is," she said with a look that was beginning to frighten Allan.

     Almost in perfect step to Mephistia's last word, a large tranquilizer dart buried itself in the ground in-between her and Allan.  Both of them reactively jumped away from the dart and in the same motions began to run in a full panic away from who or whatever their aggressor was.  Allan shot past the rat screaming the word "RUN!"  The rat didn't need a second word.

     Darts embedded in trees and the ground all around the trio as they ran blindly through the woods.  Allan began to fall behind the rat and Mephistia as he fought with branches and fallen debris that the other two easily dodged.
Then suddenly, a dart found it's mark in his leg and Allan let out a cry of pain as he went down onto the ground.
"ALLAN!" Mephistia cried out as she slid to a halt and spun about.
She started to run back toward him, but Allan cried out, "NO!  RUN!  I CAN'T MAKE IT!  MY LEG'S ALREADY NUMB!"
"NO!  We can carry you!"
"Damn-it!  Just go, don't worry about me!"
Mephistia still lingered with a expression of fear on her face.
"GO!!!!"
Allan watched her give him one last look before taking off into the cover of the trees.  His body was growing increasingly numb by the second as he heard the approach of footsteps.
"Over here, sir!  We've got one!" a voice called out somewhere.
The last thing he saw before giving up continuousness were several sets of combat boots and large guns pointed at him.   Mephistia and the rat quickly came up to speed as the unrelenting darts continued to fly all around them.  Their attackers, though, couldn't compare to the speed and agility that they move with and soon the noise of pursuit faded with distance.  Mephistia and the rat still didn't slow the pace even as their energy ran dangerously low.  The panicked flight only ended when the rat caught a foot on a root and went tumbling to the ground.  He didn't try to rise from the ground, though, but laid there, gasping for breath.  Mephistia also came to a stop and stood nearby, heavily panting herself.

     As soon as she caught her breath, Mephistia said, "Oh, God, Allan!  We've got to go back for him!"
The rat's eye's became wide with shock, "You can't be serious!  He's probably halfway back to the lab if not already dead by the hands of that squad!"
"Then we are going back to the lab.  We must rescue him."
"Are you insane?!?  Going back to the lab is a suicide run!  I escape from there to get a way from it, not to run back after a day like some pet!"
"Fine then!  I will do it by myself... I owe at least that much to him... This whole thing is my fault."
"Why are you throwing away your freedom, if not your life, for that experiment??"
"It's too complicated to explain...  But know this, I'm going, with or without you."
"You are insane!"
"No, just determined to help a friend," Mephistia said in such a way that it ended the entire argument as fast as it started.

     Allan could feel the black numbness of his body beginning to slowly fade.  He was able to partially to open his eyes and through the dim haze, he tried to make out just where he was.  A blurred shape moved about in his vision and then suddenly stopped.
"Damn, he's starting to come to.  Give him another dose," the shape said when it noticed that Allan's eyes were open and moving about.
Allan felt a sting in his arm and the blackness came back to cover his continuousness.
 

Hours?, Days?, later....

  *SMACK!*

     The blackness was suddenly blasted from his mind by pain.  Allan's brain began to reconnect to his body and placed the pain to be coming from his face.
"It's time to wake up, Mr. Jefferies.  The director wishes to have a few words with you," a male voice said into his ear.
The sentence was followed by even more pain to the face.  Allan forced himself to awaken, as it was the only to make the pain stop.  Allan let out a groan as the sense of sight returned and the view of a large and plush office came into focus.
"He's contious, sir," the voice said.
"Good, now leave us," a second voice replied.
"Is that a wise choice, sir?  He could be dangerous in his current state."
"Somehow, I doubt that... now go."
"Yes, sir."
Allan tried to see who the voices came from, but something prevented him from even moving his head.  He heard the click of  a door shutting, but in his field of vision, he couldn't see the second person, only the back of a large office chair.  Allan figured that the other voice had to be coming from behind it, it was the only logical place.
"Mr. Jefferies, welcome.  I'm sure the questions on your mind right now are "where am I" and "who are you?"
Allan didn't answer.
"I would suggest that you be a bit more friendly.  You are not in any position to be uncooperative."
"Fine, where am I?" Allan said with a sarcastic tone.
"Now, now, Mr. Jefferies... no need to be bitter, for I hold your future in my hands."
"Huh?"
The call of a buzzer sounded out from behind Allan's head and he found that it was now free to move about.
"Look at yourself, Mr. Jefferies, and you'll understand what I mean."
Allan cautiously looked at himself and gasped.  His body was that of a were-skunk again, yet, it wasn't.  To him, it looked to be almost a half-human, half-skunk mix.
"What did you do to me??"
"Simple, a bit of insurance that you won't leave, yet leaving us with a useful "employee."  We're in need of a language coder and the files we have on you shows that your a college senior that's very strong in computer languages.  Our last coder had to be "transferred" into the genetics experiments program after a very sensitive incident involving him."
"And if I refuse?" Allan softly asked.
"The gene techs were very easily able to lock you into that hybrid form.  It would be even simpler to lock your body into full animal and have you volunteered for the tissue regeneration studies."
Allan was quite sure of the truth in the statement when the voice became as cold as ice while speaking that last sentence.  Allan could feel his stomach slowly knotting as he reluctantly agreed to the job.
"Very good... Now before I send you off to your tasks, though, I have some questions for you."
Allan didn't like the sound of that.
"How did you come into contact with the experiment?"
"By car."
"Mmm-hmm...," the voice went, "Just how did you become infected?  I can already guess what it was that infected you."
"It bit me, how else could it have?"
"The facts, Mr. Jefferies, just the facts.  I have little need for your dry wit in the answers.  Where were the two of you headed?"
"I don't know, I got lost in the woods trying to get away from the thing."
"That's not how my reports go.  You two were together when the team caught up to our roaming beacon."
Allan was confused for a second by what the voice meant by a beacon.  Then he remembered the rat.
"That son of a ..... I'm going to kill him!"  he accidentally said outloud.  Allan wanted to slap himself for doing that.
"Now, now.  You can't be angry with him when he himself doesn't even know that he's a spy.  I'm sure that you've heard of 'GPS,' correct?"
"So the whole escape was..."
"A more round-about way to find our missing subject, true.  But, we now know where skunk #3 is and we have you to study.  Naturally infected were-creatures have always made better subjects in my opinion."
"If I could only move, I'd give you 'naturally infected," Allan thought to himself.
"Mr. Moot?" the voice asked as a black gloved hand pressed an intercom control box, "Would you come in and escort Mr. Jefferies to his workstation and extend him all of the courtesies due to our guest."
"Yes, sir," came back through the intercom.

     A big bruiser of a man came into the room and stood before Allan.  The man looked like he had a body carved out of granite and carried a gun that matched his size in a shoulder holster.  He bent down in front of Allan and stared straight into his eyes.
"Make one move and you'll need to visit that regeneration project when I'm done with you."
The man's breath stank of beer and onions, which made Allan gag.
"Now, Mr. Moot, no need for violence.  Mr. Jefferies is being quite cooperative, which I hope stays that way."
"Yes, sir."
Mr. Moot reached behind Allan and somehow caused the chair to release it's restraining straps.
"Stand up and follow me," Moot growled.
Allan freed himself of the straps and slowly stood up.  His hybrid form moved normally like a human's as he walked behind Mr. Moot with a growing feeling of doom.

     The white, blank hallways stank of an antiseptic that stung Allan's nose.  He felt as if he was in a hospital, only without all the patients or the doctors and nurses.  Though, every now and again, as he and Moot transversed numerous hallways (Allan lost his direction after the first dozen, they all looked too much alike for him to keep any sort of bearings), they would pass a person in a lab coat.  Some would give him a curious glance as they passed each other, but most enter and exited doors without a word.
"Guess she wasn't lying about the 'no talking' thing," Allan thought to himself.

     Eventually, Moot stopped in front of a door with small glass window and a magnetic card reader on the side.  Moot swiped a card and opened the door.
"Alright, in."
Allan didn't argue and entered.  The dimly lit room was a 10 x 10 gray metal square with a cot on one side and a computer workstation in another.  In the right wall was a second room that was motel-sized bathroom.
"Sit down in the chair," Moot barked at Allan.
Allan sat down in the swivel chair in front of the workstation.  Before he could even move the chair one inch, Moot thrust out at Allan's neck and clamped on a collar.  Allan instinctively reached up to grasp the collar when Moot moved away.
"I wouldn't if I were you.  There's 50,000 volts pulsing in a hidden tazer on that thing.  Break the collar and you'll be feeling those volts.  It also lets us know exactly where you are at all times,"  Mr. Moot moved back to the door and then turned around, "Hope you have fun in your new home."
With that, he closed the door and left Allan alone in his glorified cage.

     "The lights can't be on," Allan said to himself as he looked at the four walls of his confines.  Allan found what he presumed to be a lightswitch and flipped it.  The room became instantly pitch black.
"Oh, yea... this is much better...."
Allan turned the lights back on and then began to search about the room for clothes other than the pair of short he only had on.  There were none to be found.  Actually, there was just about nothing to be found except for some bathroom supplies.  Allan sat down on the cot with a disgusted look on his face.
"*sigh*, this sucks...."

     As Allan sat and brooded over his fate, the computer beeped at him.  Allan looked at it with a raised eyebrow and saw a small flashing icon on the screen.  He went over to the computer and looked at the icon closer.  It turned out to be an e-mail shortcut telling him that he had new mail.  Allan clicked on it and opened his new piece of mail:

 Mr. Jefferies,

Your talents will only be called on when there is a cascade AI failure.  The system never was fully integrated well for our needs and fails at the most inconvenient times.  Your terminal is hooked into a intra-net, but don't be having any ideas about hacking.  You have no entry permissions other than to the language software and it's packages.  Your work will also be monitored at all times.  Email is also limited to only receiving and replying/sending to myself and to your counterpart handling the system hardware, no one else.  But, for your cooperation, I am willing to allow you to use this facility and freely leave your room and explore when you wish (except for wings alpha 1 through beta 10.  They will be appropriately marked and guarded), if there are no problems to be dealt with from the software or yourself.  I am not a tolerant man, and the first abuse of this probational freedom will be the last.  Remember, the collar tells me your every move and I control the tazer in it.  There is an envelope on the desk with the room key.  It will allow access to rooms like the gym and cafeteria, but not to the labs, confidential/ private rooms or to the outside doors.  I respect smart people, and I hope that you have the good judgement to show me that you have earned your college credits by following good judgement and these simple rules.  BTW, the collar is water, electric, and tamper-proof and only one key removes it, so you may take showers and go about your normal business like if wasn't even there.

     "Like it isn't even there, don't make me laugh," Allan growled.  He looked next to the computer and sure enough, there was a card key.  Allan wasn't quite sure of what to make of the thing.  Was the guy cracked enough to give him almost free run about the place, was he himself crazy enough to take up on the offer?  Allan took one more look at the four metal walls.  Yes he was.

     Allan stood up, went to the door and swiped the card in the reader.  Like the letter said it would, the door actually opened to the hallway beyond.
"Well, that confirms it... the guy's definitely off his rocker."
He looked about the hallway and saw no one in either direction or anything but white as far as his eyes could see.

     The intensity of pure white actually hurt his eyes as he stepped out of the dark room and into the hall.  Allan began to just wander down the halls and different floors in no particular direction.  He never encountered another person the entire time until he came across a guard station at an intersection.  The guard only looked up at him when he approached the desk.
"Where do you think you're going?" the man asked Allan.
"Um... I really don't know.  I take it, that's one of the off-limits hallways?"
"Correct, so I suggest that you go back the way you came.  There's nothing for you on this level but trouble."
For emphasis the guard patted his firearm.
"Er... that's not necessary."
Allan quickly turned about and moved into new territory.

     Allan picked random floors in the elevator and took the time to wander every hallway he could.  His aimless ramblings lasted for hours until sudden growl got his attention.  Allan grabbed his stomach as he realized that he hadn't eaten in over a day.  That settled his mind as to what it was to be found next:  The cafeteria.

     Even more wandering didn't help to reveal the cafeteria's location.  Allan was beginning to become frustrated with how there were no maps or people to help him find his way.  That was until he sniffed something floating in the air.  Allan took a deep breath and recognized the smell to be pot roast.  His stomach went into high gear as he followed the invisible trail of food to it's source.  After a few minutes of walking about, Allan stuck his head around a corner and took a cautious look around.  A little ways down from him was a large glass window and a large set of double doors.
"That has to be it," Allan thought to himself.
Allan quietly padded over to the window and peeked inside.  It was definitely the cafeteria because of the rows of food along the back.  Allan felt his stomach go crazy the moment he saw the food, but he couldn't find the will to go inside.  There were a few people inside eating various items, but that wasn't what was holding him back, though; At the end of the line was a cashier.  Allan dug into his pockets only to find nothing by a few strands of lint.  As he looked down at his empty paws, his face fell into a deep frown.  Obviously, he would go hungry... again.  With a sigh, Allan turned around and walked back to the elevator.  If it was some cruel joke to tell him about the cafeteria, but not the cashier, he wasn't laughing.  Almost as if it was engineered to bring his mood even farther down, on his way back, Allan passed by a vending machine room full of snacks and drinks.  He let out an even longer sigh and trudged back to his room.

     The first thing Allan did when he got back to his room was open the e-mail program.  With a simple "reply to sender," he sent a short letter:

Just how am I supposed to eat??  The cafeteria and vending lounge takes money, which I don't have, and there is nothing in my room to eat.

He sat around with a sour expression plaster on his muzzle as he waited for a reply.  Every now and then, his stomach would growl a complaint about the lack of attention it had been getting.  Allan tried his best just to ignore it as he laid down on the cot and stared at the ceiling.

     Half an hour passed and still no reply came.  Allan was starting to grow weary with every passing minute as his mind began to wonder.  Did Mephistia get away safely?  He prayed to God that she did.  Allan couldn't help but to think about her and the time they spent together in the town.  All the words said, all the actions done... they kept replaying over and over in his head as he laid on the cot.

"~they didn't until the experiments...~species after species...~one of it's creations...~almost as if I just knew...," were the most prominent words that jammed in his mind.

All the evidence pointed to the same thing:  Black Ops.  Genetic engineering, non the less, on unknown numbers of people.  This place had to be so far in the black, it could get away with anything, including kidnapping an entire town for experimentation.  There was no other answer for the way Mephistia acted back in the town.

     "There has to be a backdoor into the system," Allan thought to himself as he sat down in front of the computer and looked over the files he had permission to view.  He looked over the language packages in the system and then "accidentally" clicked on a program that just happened to be right next to the language files.  A password window came up and sat there, waiting for a response.  Allan killed the program before he accidentally tripped something.

"Well, now knowing how things worked...." he thought as he smiled a wicked little smile, "This should be fun..."

     Allan spent the better part of two hours working on a program he labeled as "PROCEDURE Bugfinder."  The bogus name would throw the casual observer off, but someone who knew ADA 95 might see right through it.  With that in mind, Allan created numerous null loops, procedures and functions that did absolutely nothing but make the program look nice and big and/or throw out meaningless data.  All the data hiding, though, covered up the main three purposes of the program:  A P.I.N. seek procedure, a data extractor, and how the program would "piggy-back" someone else's data stream into and out of  the restricted portions of the intra-net, so it could do it's magic without being detected or changing the last date that the files were accessed on.

     He readied the program and threw out the snare.  Within minutes, the program snagged a data stream and was whisked away into the unknown.  Allan prayed that no one would notice the increased band-width when the program began returning data by the same method.  He received his answer when large files began to write themselves onto the computer's harddrive.  With luck, he would find the keys to Mephistia's and the lab's past somewhere in those files.

      Allan did a kill command on "Bugfinder" and closed off his intra-net connections.
"Damn, I wish I had a printer," he quietly said to himself when he looked at the pile of data the program copied in only minutes.
Sitting there on the drive were literally volumes of documents, project overviews, and misc. data from one of the sections in the lab.  He wouldn't know which one until he began working his way through each and every file.

     Allan sat in front of the monitor and read file after file for hours on end without a single break.  Through blind luck, the section his little program had piggy-back into was research and development.  What interested him the most were the project overviews and updates on the procedure that kept the were-creatures in one form.  For the most part, it seemed that only the full-animal form was ever used in the projects.  Allan wondered why the hybrid form like himself wasn't used more.  He looked over more files, but none of them mentioned hybrid bodies.  What he did find, though, were the design specs for the collar around his neck.  Not being an engineer, Allan didn't understand all of the internal workings, except for the most important ones:  The tracking device, the tazer trigger, and the lock.  The lock turned out to be a circular key lock, it would take a while, but it could be picked (much like the lockout lock on older computers.)  On the other hand, the tracker and tazer were controlled by an external sensor system that was, very stupidly Allan thought, a part of the main AI system.  Knowing how and what to look for, he figured that he could work out a stealth program in a handful of hours.  In theory it would fool the AI long enough to let him slip out of the collar, if not the lab itself.  Of course, it was still only a theory.

     With an idea for a program design in mind, Allan began a major multi-tasking job of reading and coding.  About midway through, though, there came a knock on the door.  Allan just about panicked as he hurriedly closed windows and shut off the monitor.  He tried to regain his composure and pat down his bristled fur before opening the door.  On the other side was Moot with a covered tray behind him.
"Can I help you?" Allan asked with a voice of ice.
"Compliments of the director," Moot growled and shoved the tray into the room, almost bowling Allan over.
"Thanks..." Allan said as he closed the door, "For nothing," came out when it was sealed.
He rolled the cart over the bed and sat down on the bed.  Allan removed the cover to find a full steak dinner.
"Hmmm....."
Allan took a deep breath, trying to smell for anything out of the ordinary.  Of course, even if the dinner was poisoned, he'd never know from not knowing anything about what poisons smelled like.  Yet, the growling of his stomach made Allan take the chance and eat.

     Between bites, Allan continued to read and type as midnight rolled around.  He noticed the small clock and only paused long enough to use the bathroom.  The stealth program was almost ready, but he still wasn't sure of what to do about the tazer.  If he tried to just remove the collar, the capacitor that powers the tazor could blow or cause an overload in the collar, doing major damage, if not killing him.  The only solution he could find would be to have the tazer be discharged by the program, knocking him out for who knows how long.  Allan didn't like the idea one bit, but it would have to be done.  He put the finishing touches on the program and saved it in a hidden folder on the hard drive.

     After the stealth program was out of the way, Allan reopened the intra-net and threw out another snare.  It wasn't long before more data began to overwrite the R and D data.  This time, he'd found his way into the lab database and Allan could almost imagine what answers awaited him in the numerous files.

     Allan killed the program before his hard drive became full and caused a program failure, which might have attracted unwanted attention.  He now had over two gigs of files and there were still unknown amounts left on the system that he couldn't get.  Allan looked over some of the files to find that they were early project papers that only described in theory how the creatures could be made.  It was an interesting read, but it wasn't helping him move one step forward.  Allan rewrote some of the code in "Bugfinder" so that it would read the database backward and hopefully send back files that had been written closer to the present date.  The trick was, though, getting it snared by another datastream going into the lab.

     Allan set out his snare again and the program was whisked off to parts unknown.  He wasn't even close this time and ended up in shipping.  The next two attempts were as fruitless:  R and D again and then the cafeteria.  Allan was beginning to become upset with all of the dead ends, but it was the only way not be caught with the data being moved about.  It eventually took five more tries before finally reentering the lab database.

     His idea proved right as newly created files began to fill the hard drive.  The computer clock displayed 3 AM and still Allan read on.  He was engrossed in a very vital file that was the newest addition to the database; His own.

Elsewhere...

     Mephistia stared at the fence she had dug under just days ago.  She had promised herself to never return, but how could she have ever foreseen finding a friend like Allan.  She couldn't just leave him there without her conscious eating her inside out.  Mephistia listened to the nighttime sounds of the forest and the hum of the electrified fence as she thought about how to break into the lab.
"Allan, you've better be alive after all this or I'm going to kill you... again."

Meanwhile in the lab...

     The little computer clock displayed 4:20 am as Allan stretched from the exhaustion from reading hours on end.  But it was worth it in his mind as a very important question was resolved:  Why hybrid bodies were never mentioned.  He was the very first, an experiment made from an experiment.  To create his human shaped body, it took genetic manipulation of his cells while they were in the flux of transformation.  If something had gone wrong, the end result would probably have been death.  Allan felt violated from the fact that he was nothing more that the proof of some scientist's theory.  But, it really didn't matter now as he shut off the computer and actually fell asleep in front of it.

     A loud knock at the door awoke Allan with a sudden jolt.  His jaw felt painfully sore, as he had slept with it directly on the edge of the desk.  Allan rubbed it with a hand as he opened the door to see no one on the other side.  A deep growl of frustration grew in his throat as he turned to close the door.  But as Allan swung his foot about, it hit a small box.
"The hell?" he softly asked himself as he picked it up and read the attached note.

 Mr. Jefferies,

The enclosed neck badge is for the cafeteria.  It will allow you to have up to four meals a day at no costs to yourself, as much or as little as you care to eat.  Just present it to the cashier on duty at the end of the counter.

Allan opened the box and picked up the badge by the string.  It looked similar to the door key, but it had the word "cafeteria" printed in neon across the front.
"First the collar, now this ugly thing.  What's the fascination with my neck??" Allan wondered, "I'll try this thing later."
He closed the door and turned on the computer.  As it began to boot up, he took the opportunity to take a shower and clean himself up for the first time in three days.

     Taking a shower with a body of fur was a new experience for Allan as it became a water-logged mess that weighed more than he did.  He stood in the tub as streams of water drained away from his body for a good five minutes.  Overall, getting dry just took too long for his tastes.
"Just one more thing I guess I have to learn to live with," Allan sighed.

     After the shower, Allan went back to the computer and began to erase all the files he collected the night before, only stopping briefly to glance over a few files that got his attention (particularly the one dealing with skunk #3, generation one.)  Now that all of the evidence dealing with his hacking adventures gone, Allan decided that the next item on his agenda was a bit of breakfast as his stomach growled a loud complaint.

     The walk to the cafeteria was uneventful as there was no one in the hallways the entire trip.  That fact didn't surprise Allan one bit, as it kept with the norm in the lab.  Though, the moment he nervously enter the double doors, all eye went straight towards him.  Allan tried his best to ignore the following heads as he walked to the cashier but, he felt like a sideshow attraction for all to see.
"Um, excuse me.  I-I was given this as a way to get items without having to pay.  Is that true?" he stammered out as he held up the badge to the cashier for her to see.
The cashier examined the badge for a moment and then said, "Get what you want and just hand it to me when you get to the end."
Allan didn't wait for her to change her mind and grabbed a tray as he slowly walked the food bar.

     When he finished, he handed the badge over and the cashier swiped it through a reader.
"You have three meals left today," she said after a moment.
"Thank you," Allan replied as he took back the badge.
He then proceeded over to the farthest table from the rest of the people in the cafeteria and sat with his back against a wall.  As he ate, he could feel the constant gaze of eyes upon him and it made him feel like cornered prey in a den of wolves.
"What am I, patient zero?" was all Allan could think during the entire meal, "Do I have broccoli sticking out of a fang or something?"

     Towards the end of his meal, the attention of the other people began to finally turn away from Allan as it became clear that he wasn't going to maim, kill, or cause general chaos and it brought a great felling of relief to him.  But, as he sat there, looking out of the front windows, a large commotion could be heard coming down the hall toward the cafeteria.  Allan walked up to the window just in time to see a large group of heavily armed men rush past with something large on a cart.  He could have sworn it looked to be black, and a sudden sinking feeling knotted his stomach the moment he realized just what it could have been.  Allan flew out the door to try and see where they were going, but the group had already disappeared, leaving nothing but their scents in the air.  Allan felt his stomach cramp even tighter when one fear-laden scent overpowered the rest:  Mephistia's.

     Allan stormed back to his room as tears of frustration blinded his eyes.  He stood in front of his door and planted a fist into the white metal out of pure anger.  Blood ran out of split knuckles and slightly pooled in the dents his finger had made into the material before streaming down to the floor.  Allan let the pain take away some of the hurting he felt deep down before entering his room.

     "It's now or never," Allan said to himself.
He turned on the computer and readied the final program.  If all went well, most of the major systems would go haywire an hour after activation, giving him time to recover from the tazer and pick the collar lock.  His hand hovered over the enter key as he a thought of doubt flashed into his mind.  That thought was banished as Allan reminded himself it was for Mephistia he did this.  Allan then pressed the key and a painful jolt made the world go black moments later.

The smell of burn flesh and fur greeted Allan's nose as his senses came back to him.  It took all of his willpower to force his body to respond to his commands of movement and stand up.  He looked at the clock and saw that the tazer had knocked him out for a good 15 minutes, but by this time, the program was now deep into the AI and beginning to work it's magic.
"Now it payback time," Allan growled as he pushed the monitor off of the desk and onto the floor.
The casing exploded in a shower of electric sparks and shattered glass.  Allan bent down and began to pick through the wreckage and found exactly what he needed:  Makeshift lockpicks.  He then walked into the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror as he delicately manipulated the tumblers.  In a short time was free of the collar and he threw it in disgust on the bed.
"Hold on, Mephistia...  It won't be long now."

     Allan made his way to the restricted area on the floor Mephistia had disappeared on.  But, before he came into view of the guard table, he hid in a side hallway and awaited the fireworks to begin.  He didn't have to wait long before the lights made buzzing noises and began to flicker wildly.  Allan began to run toward the desk as the lights totally died.  In the chaos of the dark, he had no problem surprising the guard and putting a lethal blow to the neck.  Allan felt sick from the death he had caused, but he knew it was me or him.  Allan only paused long enough to grab the guard's gun, extra clips, and his pass card.  As he began to make his way down the hall, the emergency lights came on and the sounds of frightened people could now be heard.

     Allan pressed himself onto the wall as a door next right next to him opened.  He didn't pass the opportunity by as he grabbed the person and pushed him back into the room.
"Make a noise and you're dead," Allan hissed through a snarl as he shoved the gun into the man's face.
The young teckkie Allan had just taken hostage looked like he was about to mess his pants as his hands shot into the air.
"Alright now, what's your purpose here?" Allan asked
"I-I work as a gene tech..." the kid stammered out.
"Perfect...  Maybe you can answer some questions for me, yes?"  Allan growled as he knodded his head up and down.
The tekkie only reciprocated the motions out of fear.

     "Can the locking you did to the people be undone?"
"Y-yes, but it takes a certain antidote."
"Is there any available?"
"S-some."
"That's not what I wanted to hear, try again," Allan said as he pushed the gun tighter against the kid's nose.
"Alright, alight!  There's enough for all the experiments!"
"Now where is Mep.... Skunk #3, generation one?"
"In maximum holding, subblock 45."
"And how do I know you're not lying?"
"I just came from there, I swear it!"
"What about the antidote?"
"Subblock 47, the main clean room."
"Now, here's the hard part:  You're going to lead me to both of them.  One false move and you'll either be dead or a new experiment.  Got it?  Let's get moving."
The tekkie led Allan on a short trip to a stairwell and down into the pit of the beast itself.

     Allan had the kid run to their destination so that anyone in the hallway they may past wouldn't have a chance to instantly id him and give him the element of surprise.  The tekkie stopped in front of a huge airlock and gasped for breath.
"Where are we?"  Allan asked.
"W *gasp* where *weeze* the skunk is..."
"Open it, now!"
The tekkie swiped his card and the lock slowly opened.  As Allan waited, a guard came around a corner and pulled his gun the moment he saw Allan.  Allan reacted almost instantly with gunfire and dropped the guard.  He pulled the tekkie into the room as two more guards came around the same corner, semi-auto's blazing.
"Get her out of her, NOW!!!" Allan screamed into the kid's face.
The tekkie opened up the inner cage and inside laid Mephistia.
"Mephistia!!  God, no!  Please be alive!"  Allan cried as he rushed to her side.
"Allan..." she painfully forced out as Mephistia tried to lift her head toward him.
Their reunion was short lived, though, as the guards came into the room.

     Allan didn't wait for a single word from the guards as he opened fire.  He felt the hot fire of lead as several bullets passed through him before the guards fell to mortal wounds.  Allan cried out in pain as the sensations of the bullets actually piercing flesh reached his brain.
Allan clutched his chest wounds as he looked down at Mephistia, "Are... you... alright?"
"I think my leg's broken," she said in ragged breaths.
A small pool of blood was beginning to form around Allan as he tried to stand, "Is... there a wheelchair around?"
No answer came from the tekkie.  Allan looked behind him to see the kid, frozen from the icy grip of death.
"Shit..."  he said as he collapsed back onto the floor.

      "We've got to get moving, God knows how many more guards are coming," Allan said as he pulled himself into a standing position and leaned against a wall, "Which leg's bad?"
"Back right one."
Allan hissed in frustration/pain and looked around the room in desperation.
"Can't just carry you, now what...?"
Out of sheer luck, along the back wall just happened to be the cart Mephistia was brought in on.
"Do you know how to use a gun?" he asked as he wheeled the cart over to the cage.
"No."
"Didn't think so," Allan replied as he helped Mephistia onto the cart.
"How's your chest?"
"Hurts like hell, but the bleeding's stopped."
"At least one good thing has come from my bite..."
"Hmm," Allan just churred.

"At least he told me where the antidote was kept before hand," Allan said as he looked at the kid one last time and took his pass card, "Which way's subblock 47?"
"Um..., to the right I think."
Allan pushed the cart with one hand through the dark hallway and approached a large door at the far end.
"That looks like a clean room if I've ever seen one."
He peeked through the window to see several people in white suits just sitting in the dim light of the emergency lamps as a guard kept watch.
"Is this glass bulletproof?" Allan asked Mephistia.
"How would I know??"
"Good point."

     Allan nervously looked down the hallways for any sign of trouble.  The fact that there wasn't any forthcoming made him feel very uneasy.
"This is too big for just two injured skunks to handle alone....  Where do they pen everyone else up?"
"They kept me just a floor or two down, I think.  But if they've move everyone around, then they could be anywhere."
Allan checked the rounds of ammo he had left, "Only 20... not good.  The next floor is a place to start,  liberating the antidote will just have to wait.  How long do you think your leg will take to heal?"
"Probably the better part of an hour," Mephistia replied after gently running a paw over the leg."
"Then we'll have to use the elevator."
"I'll only slow you down, just get going."
"NO!  I lost you once, I'm not going to lose you again," Allan said with so much sincerity, it left Mephistia speechless.
Allan pushed the cart with renewed vigor to the closest elevator with out saying a single word, but Mephistia could see the determination and rage fueling his fire with every breath.

     Allan looked over the control pad for the elevator and saw that there were only two floors lower than the one they were on.
"Fifty, fifty chance.  If  I wanted to keep people in, I'd have them...  On the lowest floor!"
Allan pushed the last button and then put in his last full clip into the small handgun.
"Keep your head down," he said to her as he pushed the cart along side a wall just as the elevator car came to a halt.
"Promise me you'll do the same," Mephistia softly replied as the doors began to open.

     Right off to bat, a couple of guards were waiting to greet them with automatic weapons.  Within seconds, the structural integrity of the elevator car was almost nil, as walls of lead flew in one side and out the other.  Allan dropped to the floor and forced the guards to seek cover with his own bullets.  He then took that opportunity to run out and leap at the first guard.  The guard tried to swing his gun up, but never made it past the halfway point before  his head was tilted to an impossible angle with a loud crack.  Allan almost immediately felt the sting of bullets as he turned around the second man.  Without the aid of cover, the both of them didn't miss a second time.  It was just that Allan could apparently survive the barrage a little bit better than the guard could.

     Allan limped back to the elevator, leaving a trail of blood behind him, and leaned heavily on the cart.
"Are you alright?"  he painfully growled out.
"I'm fine...  but you can't take anymore chances like that!!  You're using up your body faster than it can heal!"
"As long as the job gets done..." was all that Allan said as he pushed the cart out.

     Allan pushed the cart at a jogging speed down the empty maze of halls.  The cleanliness of the halls and powerful AC system made tracking the people down by scent impossible as he suddenly came to a halt.
"What's wrong, Allan?" Mephistia asked.
Allan didn't reply as he went into a coughing fit that brought up a good amount of blood.
"Allan!"
"I'm fine!" was all he said before continuing on.
"No you're not!  You've got to rest!"
"NO!  I won't rest until this nightmare is over!  They're going to pay for what they did to all of us, or I will die trying!!" Allan screamed.
Mephistia was shocked and somewhat frighten by the snarl of pure hatred that came to Allan's muzzle.  As if on cue, a low mourningful howl broke the silence that followed Allan's outburst.

     Mephistia's head picked up at the sound.
"I know that howl, he was two cells down from me!"
"Then we must be on the right track,"  Allan said as he began to push the cart once again.
Mephistia looked at Allan and saw only anger in his face.  She was becoming extremely worried about his sudden change in personality, how careless about life he had become.  She was afraid for him, afraid of what she and the lab had caused.  Allan's innocence had been taken from him by the lab, or was it something else that drove him to this state?  Mephistia felt pity for the raging daemon standing next to her.  She, too, was partially responsible for dragging him down to this hell on Earth, and it was eating away at her inside with sorrow and regret.
"Allan?"  she finally said.
Allan slowed his pace, "Yes?"
"There's no need to fight this war, it wasn't yours to begin with...  I, I don't want to see you die!  For the first time in all of my life, I've finally found something that I deeply care for and I'm afraid that I will lose it needlessly!" Mephistia sobbed as tears filled her eyes.
Allan was taken aback by the statement.
"There's no one else to fight it....  This war won't be over until everyone's free, then the swords can be made into plowshares.  I don't want to die, but I have to keep moving forward.  They hurt me deeply.  But what they did to you, I can not forgive!"
Mephistia was stunned at the statement.  He was seeking only revenge for her, not for him, not for what they had done to his life.
"Allan, stop this insanity!  You don't have to avenge anyone, least of all, me!"
"I'm sorry, but I can't rest until you're free and this damned place is only so much rubble."

     Mephistia could see the determination all too well in Allan.  His mind was set and nothing she could say would change it.
"Then, we leave in freedom together or not at all," she said as she gripped his hand with her paws.
A smile came to Allan's muzzle for a moment, but quickly faded as the sounds of conflict approached them.

     Allan downed the first guard as the man rounded a corner up the hallway from him.  Two other guns, though, shot blindly around the corner, not giving him an open shot.  Allan kicked open a door and shoved the cart inside and managed to barely get himself in before a team of guards rushed forward.  Allan was able to shoot one, but three others immediately took his place.  The guards were completely preoccupied with Allan and never noticed a second form sliding along the floor towards them.  The team never had a chance as Mephistia hamstrung them and if Allan didn't shoot them, she took care of their throats.

     Now that silence was once again able to return, did they hear the sound of terror coming from a dark corner of the room.
"Who's there?!?"  Allan yelled as he swung the gun in the general direction of the noise.
A cry of panic was the only answer he received.  As his night vision became adjusted to the dark room, only then was he able to make out a woman cowering under a desk.  From the white lab coat, he didn't have to guess what she did for a living.
"We're not going to hurt you, but I need a few answers," Allan said as he put the gun into his short's waistband.
The woman remained oblivious to his sentence.  Allan knelt down next to her and put a hand on her shoulder.  Big mistake was the first thing to flash into his mind as a ear-piercing scream tore through the air.
"Now, there's a familiar reaction," Mephistia said with a smile to Allan.
Allan stuck out his tongue at her before turning back to the woman.
"Look, all I want to know is how to open the cages, ok?"
"T-t-the cages...?"
"Yes, you know, open... the opposite of close?"
"It takes a palm scan and a id card..."
"Can you do it?"
The woman didn't answer.
"CAN you DO it?!?"
She finally just nodded.
"Thank you for answering...  I promise not to hurt you and you'll be free to go after just doing us that little favor," Allan said with a open hand to help the woman up.

     "You must be feeling better," Allan said as he helped lift Mephistia back onto the cart.
"A little.  It would take a lot more to keep me from joining in on the fun."
"Shall we, then?"  Allan said as he let the woman lead the way, "Oh, and I wouldn't lead us into a trap.  Those twits you call guards seem to have a tendency to shoot up everything and everyone around us, including innocent bystanders."
That statement seemed to cause the woman to suddenly shift from heading to a hallway on the right to one on the left.  Allan just raised an eyebrow in wonderment.
"And who says skunks have no charisma?"  Mephistia said in a low tone of voice to him.
"If that's what you want to call it," Allan replied.

     The sounds of howls and whines steadily grew stronger with each step.  Mephistia was becoming visibly excited and seemed to forget about the rest of the world.  Allan, on the other hand, kept watch for the next maniac with a gun just lurking around the bend.  The pain from the last set of bullets to pass through him had finally subsided and he was damned if he was going to just let it happen again without a good reason.  As they rounded a corner, the woman then stopped walking.
"What's wrong?"  Allan asked.
"This is the cage control panel," the woman said as she pointed at a card reader set into the wall.
"Open them then!!  Is there a PA system down here?"
"No."
"Have to do it the hard way then... Open them suckers up and I would suggest that you then disappear.  Who knows if some of them will be as nice as we tried to be towards you."
The woman nodded as she slid her card through the reader.  The wall right next to the reader then sunk in and lifted up to reveal a scanner and a complex set of controls.  She then put her palm onto the scanner and let it run.  Within a few seconds, the woman had inputted the correct command and looked down the hall to see every glass door slowly unlock and slide open.
"Well, you did your end of the bargain and I'll keep mine.  Now, go find a shady spot before things really get out of hand, paw, whatever..."
The woman didn't need a second time before she was off and running.
"Reminds me of someone else the first time I met him," Mephistia said with a huge grin.
"I am not amused," Allan growled.
"There's not time to be anyway...  Here comes our army."

     Allan cleared his throat and yelled at the top of his lungs, "Everyone!!  The time for your freedom has come, but it's going to take all of us fighting to win it!!!"
Some of the experiments had begun to filter out into the hall as others looked up at him with confused expressions.
"The only way out of this lab is through the guards to topside!  It's up to you if you really want to be rid of this nightmare!!  Those of you who say 'yes' follow me, the rest may do whatever they feel is right to them!!"
A wolf in the rear spoke up, "I'm with you!"
"So am I!" came from a rat in the middle.
And then came the deluge of yes’s from those two voices as cage after cage was abandoned and the ranks grew larger to anything Allan had imagined.

     "2x2, 3x3, tss.. I think I see even a couple of 4x4's, the animals came to the ark," Allan said to no one in particular as more and more people filled the hall.
"So, great leader, where do we go from here?" Mephistia asked.
"One thing at a time...  I'm still working on getting past the 'assemble the troops' stage of my non-existent plan," Allan replied as he stroked his muzzle in deep thought.  "The most prudent thing I can think of to do is for you to lead everyone out of here."
"What's this 'me' business?  Just exactly what does that leave you doing?"
"It leaves me to break into the lab with the antidote."
"As well as that guard!  It's suicide to even try to take that lab by yourself in the shape your in!  Did one of those bullets catch you in the head?!?"
"You're the only one who knows the route topside.  Mephistia, you're just too important to be caught in the crossfire and I can't ask these people to just walk into the line of fire along side me."
It was then a smallish gray wolf approached them, "Excuse me, but what is this 'antidote' that's so important you'll risk your life for it?"
Allan turned toward the wolf, "It will undo whatever they did to you all and allow you to become human again during the day."
The wolf's eyes grew wide as dishes, "That IS worth the risk."  The wolf looked down at the grown for a moment before looking back up to Allan, "I've always wondered what it was like to be human and walk on two legs."
Allan thought about how Mephistia talked about how she could only ever remember being a wereskunk and it made him feel for the wolf.  He also thought about how his life was over, antidote or no antidote.  According to the report he read, there was nothing that could change him back into a human.  Thanks to the genetic engineering done on him, his current morphic form would be the closest Allan could ever achieve.  Those thoughts began to refuel the fire of anger and hatred within him.
"I'm sorry, Mephistia, but this is something I have to do."

     Allan checked the clip in his gun and found he only had three rounds left.
"Allan, just how in the hell are you going to take an entire lab with just three bullets??  I still don't know how you've kept going with the punishment your body's taken.  You need time to regenerate before something else happens to you!"  Mephistia said as she saw just how little remained in Allan's gun.
"We just don't have time to sit around while I heal.  Hell, we've probably wasted too much time here.  I don't know how much time is left before they can purge my program from the system and bring whatever security systems they have back on line.  Please, just get everyone out of here.  Do it...  for me?"
"Allan.... you're just simply impossible," Mephistia said with a sigh.
"Get a move on it, I'll cover the rear and keep an eye on things."
"You're the boss, Allan," Mephistia said as she gingerly slid off of the cart and tested her bad leg, "You better be glad I can walk now," she said as she limped to the head of the group, "Alright, everyone, follow me!"

     Allan stood to the side as he watched person after person file out of the cell block and with a little luck, to their freedom.  He closed his eyes and deeply inhaled to try and calm his nerves as he thought about the fight that stood ahead of him.  Allan opened his eyes to see that in what should have been an empty hallway stood the young wolf, an otter, raccoon, and a fox looking up to him.
"What the hell are you four still doing here?!?"  Allan said in complete shock.
The wolf sat down in front of him before saying, "We've decided to take the lab with you.  I overheard everything.  And we decided that the proper thing to do is to repay you for risking your life to help us."
"Are you out of your mind???  NO, that is just out of the question!  I can't have you just risking your lives like that."
"I don't think you have much of a choice.  If the skunk was telling the truth about how hurt you are, you'll need our help.  We're doing this of our own choice, so you can clear your conscience of what may happen to us."
Allan closed his eyes and sighed deeply before reopening them.
"I take it this isn't open to negotiation?" he then asked.
All four shook their heads 'no.'
"*sigh*  Just promise me you'll keep your heads down when the lead starts to fly, ok?"
The group smiled as wide as they could and shaking their head enthusiasm.  Allan managed only a weak smile in response.

     "Alright, as far as I can tell, there's only the one guard at the far end.  The problem will be the lab workers between us and him.  I don't want to hurt anyone that isn't a threat to us, which means no pre-emptive strikes, understood?"  Allan said as he ducked back down from looking into the window of subblock 47.
"Mmmm... why not?  They're just as guilty in causing our condition,"  the otter asked.
"They're only doing their job, just following orders from that director bastard.  If you want to blame someone, it's him."
"Who?"
"The person who runs this damned lab."
"Oh... never heard of him.  So, what's the plan then?"
Allan pointed to the wolf and raccoon, "You two take the left side, try to circle back to the guard or guards and if needed, try to get the people out of the line of fire,"  He then looked at the otter and fox , "You're on the right, same plan.  I'll try to take him down first if the shot exists.  Don't be a hero and get yourself under cover if things backfire."
Allan put a hand on the door handle and said a silent prayer.

     "Go on my signal...," Allan said through clenched teeth as he clicked the safety off of the gun.
The four others nodded their heads in unison as they tensed up into a pouncing/attacking posture.  Allan returned the gesture and then turned his attention back to the task at hand.  With a savage growl, he threw open the door and with the momentum of his motion, landed on the floor in a prone firing position with a clear shot at the guard.  The only sound heard in that split-second was Allan yelling the word 'Now!'

     The party outside rushed in over and past Allan as they fanned out in a blur of fur.  The sudden noise and commotion instantly caused panic among the lab assistants as people screamed and/or ducked and covered.  The panic also caused the guard to briefly hesitate and Allan didn't wait for the opportunity to disappear.  Allan took a snap-shot that kneecapped the guard and sent him down in a cry of agony.  The fox then took that chance to quickly pounce on the guard and disarm him.  The fox tossed Allan the gun and Allan gladly switched out the clips for a full load of bullets.

     "Alright, now...  I simply need someone here to give me the antidote to what you did to these people," Allan said as he pulled himself up from off of the ground and brushed off his fur.
No one moved or said a word.
Allan's eyes narrowed in frustration, "Either someone starts talking or everyone finds out if the raccoon has rabies or not, if you get my drift."
"Hey!" the raccoon said with an annoyed tone as a few of the assistants that were near him slowly scooted away.
Allan paid no attention to him as he walked over to an assistant.
"You can leave the moment I get that antidote and a crash course in its use, no tricks.  We don't have a lot of time and my patience is almost extinct.  If I don't get an answer in two seconds, my companions will start biting,"  he said with an ice-cold glare.
That seemed to have done it as three assistants fought each other to open a safe at the rear of the room.  Allan allowed himself to smile on the inside at the results achieved.

     An assistant gently set down a rack of sealed test-tubes before Allan and the group.  Allan gently picked up vial and looked at it in the light.
"So, what's needed to be done?"  he asked as he put the vial back in the holder.
"Just inject two cc's of the liquid per hundred pounds of bodyweight," the assistant replied.
"Into anyplace special?"
"Anywhere on the body should do it."
"Cool, all I need now is one more thing before we get out of your fur.  I need your overcoat."
The assistant gave a surprised look at the request, but didn't question it as he quickly pulled off his clean-suit and gave it to Allan.  Allan gingerly wrapped the rack up in the suit and tied it shut.  He then grabbed a couple of syringes on his way out and tucked them into the suit.
Without turning around, Allan walked out of the lab as he said, "Someone should help him before he looses too much blood..."

     The wolf padded up next to Allan as they fast-walked toward the elevator.
"Were you really serious about having us bite those people back there?" the wolf asked.
"If you came down to it, yes."
There was a stagnant pause as the wolf became slightly taken aback from Allan's reply.
"Hey, what was that about me and rabies?!?" came from behind to break the silence.
Allan looked back with a sheepish expression at the raccoon, "Sorry... it was the first thing that popped into my mind.  It work, didn't it?"
The raccoon only gave Allan a peeved look.  Allan just shrugged his shoulders in return.

     "So, anyone know how to get out of this place?" asked Allan as the elevator doors closed.
"I thought you did!" the Otter replied out of shock at the question.
"No... I don't.  Why do you think I had everyone follow Mephistia out of here??"
"Well, that's just great..."
"Don't panic just yet, how hard can it be to get to the ground floor?" Allan said as he looked over the control panel.
None of the buttons were labeled in numerical order, just by what offices or lab(s) was located on that particular floor.
"Ok...  very hard by the look of things... Crap."

     "Let's see here..."  Allan said as he looked over the button descriptions while rubbing his muzzle, "What set would be the most likely to be on the ground floor.  If the lab we came from was a subblock, then there's the possibility the next floor is above ground.  Hmm..."
Allan read the button:  Main labs 1-5, administration.  That made him think for a moment before reading the next one up:  Receiving, material processing.
"Shipping and receiving, eh?  This has to be it," he said as he pushed the second button.

     The entire group waited nervously as the elevator rose.  Allan motioned for everyone to scrunch up against the sides it slowed to a stop before kneeling down himself and taking aim with the gun.  The moment the doors opened, Allan swept from side to side with the gun, praying there wouldn't be a target in sight.  When nothing presented itself, he let out a brief sigh of relief before cautiously checking around the outside of the cab.  Nothing about there as well, so Allan quietly padded about the hallway and checked things out.  He then motioned for everyone else to follow when he was satisfied things were safe.
"I believe we're on the right track," Allan said as he sniffed the air, "Not even their AC unit can cover up the scents of so many people."
The wolf sniffed about and a smile came to his face, "You're right!  I recognize several scents!"
"Let's get going then, I really don't want to hang around this place any longer than necessary."

     The five of them worked their way down the maze of halls as fast as they could since time was not on their side.  With each passing minute, the AC blew out the scents from the hallways and if they didn't catch up to Mephistia or find the exit by the time the trail was cold, chances were they'd never get out.

    Things came to a grinding halt after five minutes of travel as they skidded to a halt in a crossroad leading left and right.
Allan sniffed about, "Oh, shit...  I can't pick up their trail.  How about you guys??"
The raccoon wandered about in circles a few moments before replying.
"I'm getting confused paths here.  The scents are very weak and to me, they smell like they're coming from both directions..."
The otter confirmed the raccoon's findings after a brief test of the air.  Allan looked down each hall for a few moments with a frown.
"How lucky do you guys feel?" Allan asked with a deep worried look on his face.

      "I really don't have a clue of what to do now..." Allan said as he paced franticly back and forth.
"Let me try something," said the wolf, "But first, I need everyone to stand absolutely still."
The wolf walked around everyone with his nose plastered to the ground, then a bit up the hallway the group had recently traveled, and then back through the group and around the crossroad.  He seemed to prefer the left hand side as he sniffed about it and walked in tight patterns across the floor.
The wolf padded back to Allan and then said, "The scent trail seems to be stronger going to the left.  I think that's they way they went."
"That's one way of doing it...  What's the rest of you say?" Allan asked the group.
There were no objections from the otter, fox, or raccoon.
"Left it is then.  I just hope you're right..."

      The group basically ran down the hallway, only slowing to check windows or cross-hallways of possible dangers.  They covered good distance until the wolf (who had taken point to follow what little remained of the scent trail) came across several bodies.  Two guards laid dead along side the body of a wolf as well as multiple pools of blood covering random spots across the hallway.  Allan scanned the walls to see numerous bullet holes in them and even more in the floor.  He could just feel the blood draining from his face as a feeling of absolute dread washed over him.
"Oh, God, no..." was all Allan said as he ran at break-neck speeds down the hall, following the trail of blood.

     As Allan ran down the hallway, a figure began to appear around the corner of one of the cross-hallways.  The fact the person was wearing combat boots automatically placed him as a guard and Allan put on an extra burst of speed.  Just as the guard cleared the corner, Allan shoulder rammed him at full speed.  The guard went flying backward into a wall as Allan spun about to regain his balance.  The guard slid down the wall and slumped over, unconscious and Allan, after quickly checking that the vials were still in one piece, cautiously approached him.  Seeing that the guard was no longer a threat, he then proceeded to “borrow” the man’s extra clips and gun.

“Ah, just call me, Mr. Woo,” Allan joked to himself before taking back off down the hall.

     As the trail began to peter out, probably because the wounds creating the trail were beginning to heal Allan rationalized, the sound of gunfire could be heard echoing down the halls.  Allan slowed down and narrowed his eyes as he tried to listen to the sounds and figure out the direction they were drifting from.  As he walked down the hall, the rest of the group finally caught up to him.

“Nice tackle back there,” the otter said to Allan.

Allan just made a motion for ‘quiet’ and then signaled the group to follow him.  It wasn’t long before they came upon the rest of the werecreatures, huddled against the walls or what ever cover was available from the hail of bullets coming out of a second hallway.

“This is where we part company for now.  Hold on to this and what ever you do, don’t drop it, “ Allan said as he handed over the coat-bundle to the fox standing next to him, “I don’t want anyone to even think about following me through this, is that clear?” he then asked the four as several bullets ricocheted off a far wall.

No one moved or said a word.

“IS THAT CLEAR?!?” Allan growled.

Now the four nodded their heads ‘yes’ with slightly startled looks.  Allan put one of the two guns into his shorts’ waistband and gave the group one last nod before starting down the rest of the hallway.

     The entire distance was slow going from having to wad through a sea of living fur and ducking for cover every pawful of seconds.  As he climbed over and around bodies, Allan noticed in passing glances that there were numerous hurt and injured people in the crowd.  He eventually was able to force his way to the front of the line to find Mephistia with what appeared to be a torn-off fragment of a guard’s uniform wrapped around her right foreleg.  Allan instinctively winced as a couple of bullets passed too close for comfort overhead as he crawled the last few feet to her.

“This is what you call leading the people out?”  Allan said as he hunched against the wall next to Mephistia.

“Well, I wasn’t expecting to run into a small army.  It looks like they have everyone left in a condition to fight guarding the main entrance,” Mephistia replied as she readjusted the band on her arm.

“What happened to your arm?”

“Lucky shot by one of those guys.  Don’t worry… it’s only a flesh wound.  Should heal right up in a little bit.”

“You have no right to say that, especially the way you’ve worried over me these last few days.  Let me see that arm, leg or whatever you call it,” Allan said as he reached for the bandage.

With a sigh, Mephistia allowed Allan to inspect the damage, so to say.  The cut wasn’t wide, but it was deep enough to be a bad bleeder.  Luckily, though, the wound had sealed itself up and flesh was beginning to regrow over the area.

“And you complain about how I take care of my body…” Allan said through a little smile as he wrapped the bandage back on.

“Very funny, Allan… So, how do you propose we get past the good-buy party over there?”

“First, I need to see what’s going on out there,” Allan said as he tried to climb across Mephistia to the corner, “Could you please move a little bit to your left?”

There was a bit of a struggle as Mephistia tried to scoot out of Allan’s way with only using her left foreleg and Allan trying not to have any part of his body stick out past the corner as he clumsily worked his way around/over her.

“Geeze, I’d say we need to work on our dexterity if we weren’t about to be killed,” Allan said as he finished sliding up next to the wall.

“Thppth… thppth...” was Mephistia’s reply as she pushed Allan’s tail away from her face and spat out a couple of furballs, “And I say you need to learn to control that thing if you don’t want to find it ripped off!”

“Sorry…”

     Allan pulled the second gun from his waistband and cocked it as he peered around the corner.  In the hall was the bodies of a fox, rat, and what appeared to be a guard missing a good chunk of his throat and beyond them were about a 6 more guards.  What was odd, though, was the fact that none of them had any cover to duck behind, just an empty hallway with a large pressure door at the end.  It was then that one of them noticed Allan’s head and immediately took a pot shot at him.  Allan narrowly pulled his head back in time as a chunk of the wall disappeared into white dust.

“Damn!  That was too close!” Allan hissed as his heart went into overdrive.

“What’d you see?”  Mephistia asked him when Allan got his breath back.

“5 or 6 left, unfortunately, they’re all carrying what look like MP5’s.”

“I have no idea what those are, but they sound bad.”

“Bad is an understatement with those things.  The good news is that they have nowhere to go and something tells me they aren’t expecting a gun in the crowd with the way they’re indiscriminately spraying,” Allan said as he stroked the fur on his muzzle.

“That’s the good news??   Just what are you planning?  I know that look on your face!”

“Just some quick calculations.”

“For what??”

“For this…” Allan said as he sprung to his feet.

     Mephistia never had a chance to say a word as Allan dived past the corner with both guns blazing.  The guards immediately opened fire themselves when a live target presented itself, but chaos quickly grew in the ranks as the men realized that there were bullets flying back as well.  Allan landed on the ground and spun about at an angle as the momentum from a chest and leg strike pulled his body about.  He never felt a thing, though, as adrenaline flowed wildly through his veins.  The guards fell like dominoes, as they became more involved with finding a place to hide than fighting, only to just run into each other and the walls.

     As the smoke cleared, not a thing stirred in the hallway while the echoes of gunfire died away.  Mephistia wiped the sting of burnt gunpowder from her eyes only to see Allan lying on the ground, not moving a muscle as a widening pool of blood formed around his body.

“ALLAN!!!” was all Mephistia cried as she ran to his side.

     Mephistia franticly tried to find some sign of life in Allan as she rolled him onto his back.  There were only the two shots in his chest and leg, but from the size of the entrance and exit holes, the slugs had to be anti-personnel, possibly homemade dumdums.

“Get me something to use as bandages, NOW!  And get those guns away from the guards!!” she screamed at the few people that had ventured over past the corner.

Mephistia held a paw against Allan’s neck, praying that she would feel something.  Faintly, the signs of life existed in him as Mephistia held an ear close to his head and listened to short, ragged breaths being drawn in and out.  A small lab mouse came back to Mephistia and handed a bundle of ripped-off shirt arms and pant legs to her as the clatter of guns being kicked away drifted from behind.  Mephistia worked fast to cover up the gaping wounds and tightened down the makeshift tourniquets the best she could.

“Don’t you go dying on me, Allan…  Why did you have to do such a foolhardy thing like that when you knew you were in such bad shape…?” she said as silent tears fell down her furry cheeks.

As she sat there, the wolf, fox, otter, and raccoon walked up in disbelief that Allan had taken the bullets so that they could leave freely.

“Is… he?” the wolf asked in a quavering voice.

“No…  but he’s just barely hanging on.  I’m afraid that it may be too much for his regenerative abilities to handle,” Mephistia replied in her own wavering voice.

     Mephistia looked about and saw that one of the MP5’s had a long shoulder strap attached to it.

“One of you, go get me that thing, quick!” she said as she pointed to the gun.

The otter ran over and brought the gun back to her.  Mephistia looked the strap over and figured out how to change its length to as long as it would go.  She then slipped it on to just behind her forelegs.

Mephistia turned toward the fox and then said, “Put down that bundle and hold this thing as high as you can,” as she motioned to the gun, “The rest of you, do you think all of you can lift Allan?”

“No problem…”

“Then GENTLY place him onto my back,” Mephistia said as she laid down on the floor.

The group then proceeded to cautiously lift Allan just high enough to slide across Mephistia’s back and into the strap loop.

“Now, move the strap down to his chest and pull the free end to tighten it down just enough so that he won’t fall off,” she then said to the fox.

As the strap began to bite into her, Mephistia motioned for the fox to stop.  She then tested if the makeshift loop would hold and was satisfied with the results.  Mephistia slowly stood up, feeling the weight of Allan’s body in the leg that had just healed as well as the cut in the foreleg.  The pain was what she needed, though, as it took away the feelings of fatigue and drowsiness from her body.

“Say, what is that you’re carrying?” she asked the fox as it dawned upon here that he had a bundle that was covered with Allan scent.

“Some sort of antidote,” he replied before taking the coat back up into his mouth.

Mephistia smiled on the inside when he said that for no other reason than the fact that Allan had pulled off the impossible.  But those thoughts quickly reminded her that there was still a long road ahead of them…

“Let’s get going,” she then simply said to the crowd.

     The fox and wolf struggled with the huge door as the air pressure from the hallways helped to keep it closed.  Mephistia picked up one of the loose guns and jammed it into the slight opening the two canines were able to make.  After the fox and wolf shifted grips and positions along with Mephistia using the gun as a crowbar, the door could finally be forced opened.  Mephistia took in a deep breath as she looked at the last few hundred feet to their freedom and the final obstacle blocking it:  The compound’s three barrier fences.

     Mephistia looked up at the night sky and the full moon hanging low in it for a brief second before scanning the grounds for any signs of guards.  Only the single guard at the main gate was visible, even with her enhanced night-vision.  That didn’t sit well with her, considering the number of men they had to wade through in the ground floor alone.  As if by some gift of fortune, a slight breeze kicked up with the gate being perfectly upwind from her.  Mephistia deeply inhaled, looking for the slightest clue to tip her nose off to impending trouble.  Again, only one human scent could be separated from the multitude of others, except…  Mephistia breathed again, something didn’t seem quite right to her sensitive nose, but she couldn’t place it.

“Something’s not right here…  You three fan out and keep your eyes peeled.  I don’t like this situation one bit,” she whispered to the wolf, raccoon, and otter, “You have the most important cargo, so stay with the group and keep them under cover,” Mephistia then said to the fox.

     The group quickly took off into their separate directions and silently disappeared into the night.  Mephistia looked up at Allan and checked the strap before slinking off into the shadows herself.  Nearby were the shipping platforms and doors.  The numerous boxes and containers made for perfect hiding spot not only for her, but also for ambushers as Mephistia approached them slowly.  The only sounds she could hear were the padding of her feet and the slow breaths of Allan as she weaved in and out among the shadows.  Her own nervousness played tricks with her eyes and ears as fear began to seep into her judgement.  Was that movement from behind that box?  What about by that door?  Mephistia tried to calm herself down, her nose told her that there wasn’t another person around, but it was little help against fears stemming from knowing that your life and the lives of so many others were depending on you.  Another breeze stirred up the air as she leaned against a box for a quick rest.  Again, something didn’t smell right with it, almost as if there was something missing.  A low moan came from Allan as she rested and Mephistia quickly tried to pinch his muzzle shut between her shoulder and the back of her neck. For what seemed to be a panic-filled eternity, she listened for any sign that someone had herd the moan.  No cry of alarm was raised or footsteps moved in her direction and Mephistia let out a hushed sigh of relief.

“Allan, you’re going to be the death of all of us…” she though to herself.

Mephistia slowly slinked down the loading docks to the far end without any problems.  She peered around the corner at the main-gate guard, only to see him sit down in front of what looked to a little black box and drink something from a mug.  Mephistia mentally guesstimated the distance from her position to the gate at around 200, possibly 300, feet of wide-open space.  If the guard had even one of those things Allan called a “MP5,” a lot of people would be seriously hurt, even killed by the time the first person reach him.  That didn’t even take in account if there were any others hiding around the building or in the woods outside the gate.

     As she stood there, the smell of the “nothingness,” as she dubbed it, grew stronger.  Yet, there remained only the one guard in sight.

“I don’t like this one bit…” Mephistia said to herself before slipping back to the main entrance door.

About the same time as she arrived, the otter appeared from the shadows.

“Anything?” Mephistia asked him.

“Not that I could detect.  Why does that make me so nervous?”

“You’re not the only one, but we can’t wait forever to move out.  I don’t like the idea of using the gate, but it’s the fastest way to get everyone out.  Let’s wait for the other two to get back before making any final plans.  In the meantime, I’ll tell you how to get to a town not too far from here once were outside…”

     As Mephistia explained a crude drawing in the dirt to several people, the wolf and raccoon made their way back.

“There’s nothing but a building and trees out there,” the wolf said as he sat down next to Mephistia.

“Same here,” the raccoon added in.

Mephistia thought about the findings, or lack there of, for a few moments before asking, “What do you think our chance are with rushing the main gate?”

All four thought long and hard before the raccoon answered.

“I don’t think we have a choice…  Do you realize how long it would take to tunnel under three fences and get all of us out?”

“I know, but I’m worried about what that guard may have.  Since he’s the building’s first and last line of defense, he may have something even worse than those “MP5’s” at his disposal,” was Mephistia’s reply to his question.

“I think we’ve got to chance it, what do the rest of you say?” the raccoon asked as he turned to the rest of the crowd.

There was a general consensus from all that rushing was their best hope.  After a few minutes planning, it was decided that a three-prong attack from the front and sides might turn the tide in their favor.  Mephistia then turned over command to the raccoon as she stepped to the far side of the door, out of the way from everyone.

“I can’t run with him, it may only make things worse…” was the only explanation she offered to her decision, “I’ll cove the rear and make sure there are no surprises coming from the lab.  This is your plan, so you can make better corrections on the fly than I possibly could.”

“Are you sure?” asked the raccoon with a nervous voice.

Mephistia only nodded ‘yes.’

     “On three, everybody,” the raccoon said as he himself tensed up for longest, hardest sprint of his life.  “THREE!!!”

The entire mass neatly split into three large groups as they ran towards the gate.  As to the plan, the sides lagged a good distance behind as the center mass bared down on the unsuspecting guard, picking up speed and distance from the others.

     “And it’s the bottom of the fifth, with two men out…” drifted from out of the tele as the guard took a sip of his coffee.

“God… what I wouldn’t give for something to happen…” he thought to himself as he set down his mug on the table and resumed watching the game.

“Strike one!”

As he sat there, a low rumbling sound just began to come into hearing range and made the guard look up from the set in wonder.

“Strike two!”

The sound became louder and louder as the mug began to vibrate across the table.  The guard realized that the sound was coming from outside his little booth and looked out the window.

“Strike three, yer’ outta here!”

“Sweet mother!” was all the guard had time to say as the mug fell to the ground and shattered.  Coming right towards him was a stampede of giant animals.  The guard immediately grabbed his gun and stepped out of the booth.  As he stood his ground and tried to cock the machine gun, the guard noticed two more sounds coming from either side of him.  The guard looked up to see not one, but three lines of large, angry animals all heading right to him.  What seemed to be the leader was a huge raccoon, staring straight at him with the intentions of murder all too clear in the beast’s eyes.  The guard instantly knew he couldn’t win as he threw away his gun and dropped to the ground with his arms over his head.  Closer and closer came the rumble and the guard screamed out in terror.  As he cried out, the rumble suddenly stopped…

“AAAAAA~ eh?” he said as he slowly looked up in confusion at what had just happened.

Standing there in front of the guard was the raccoon with the guard’s gun in his paws.  All around them were the rest of the animals, just standing there and silently watching for what would happen next.

“Um, hello there.  Would you awfully mind opening that gate for us?” the raccoon asked as he cocked the gun in one fluid motion.

“T-t-the gate??” the guard asked as he swallowed nervously.

“Yes and were in a big hurry, so do it fast.”

   The guard stumbled backward into his little booth and fumbled with the gate controls a few seconds before finally finding the right one.

As the crowd filtered out, the raccoon called out, “Thanks, and if you don’t mind, I’ll be borrowing this thing for a little while!  Oh yea, and keep that gate open until that very last one of us leaves or you’ll be hearing from me again!” before disappearing out himself into the nearby woods.

“S-ss-sure,” the guard replied as he slumped down onto his stool in the booth.

Only then did he notice the dark stain on the front of his trousers and a long stream of four-letter words soon followed suit into the night sky.

     Mephistia looked up at the boot with a raised furry eyebrow as the words faded off into the distance.  Inside, she felt that the raccoon made a good choice with how he handled that situation.  Her’s, on the other paw, was beginning to tire her out.

“Geeze… you’re getting heavy.  You had to go and sacrifice yourself, didn’t you???”  Mephistia asked Allan as she tried to shift him about on her back.

No answer came, not that she expected one to begin with.  With a sigh, she began to trudge towards the gate as quickly as she could without jolting Allan around too much.  As she marched onward, the nothingness seemed to suddenly become overwhelmingly powerful as the noise of approaching feet hit her ears.

     Mephistia tried to turn about to see who it was, but before she could react, something powerful lifter her and Allan off of the ground like they weighed almost nothing.  With a look of pure shock, she turned her head to see Mr. Moot holding them up by the gun strap.

“After all the trouble we went through to bring you back, you’re just simply walking out on me?  Why, I’m hurt,” Mr. Moot said with a false frown that just oozed the evil intentions it tried to mask.

Mephistia’s blood turned ice-cold with fear as she realized why she never heard him coming, the man had no scent.  No wonder why the air seemed to be missing something; Her other senses picked him up, but the nose couldn’t and her brain tried to warn her by creating the sensation that something had been removed.

The surprise must have shown on her face, because Mr. Moot then said, “What you can’t smell, you can’t track…”

With that, he then threw Mephistia and Allan with all of his might back towards the building.  Mephistia tried to twist her body in a vain attempt to land on her feet, but with Allan’s extra weight, it proved impossible.  The two landed hard and Mephistia felt the strap come loose as she and Allan rolled in different directions.  Mephistia was able to dig her claws in and come to a stop as Allan continued to tumble, only to hit the building side with a good amount of force.

“ALLAN!”

“Don’t worry about him right now.  It’s just you and me…  I know your scent quite well, it was all over my brother’s body when the teams found him,” Mr. Moot said as he began to approach Mephistia.

As he walked, Mr. Moot took out a air hypo and injected himself with some sort of liquid.  Mephistia’s eyes grew wide as his form began to alter at an alarming rate.  Clothes split and fell off as Mr. Moot’s body grew even larger and he fell forward into a quadruped stance.  Mephistia unconsciously began to backpedal as an exact copy of the bear she had killed only days earlier let out a deafening roar.

     Somehow, Mephistia found her feet and began to run as fast as she could towards the building.  Her only chance was if she could take him by surprise.  Mephistia immediately rounded the building and headed straight for the shipping platforms.  If she could make the crates…  As second roar made her look behind to see Moot gaining distance like a runaway train.

“I’m coming for you, bitch!”  he screamed as Mephistia ran up the stairs onto the loading platforms.

As she passed a set of boxes, Mephistia immediately doublebacked  and jumped off of the platform into the maze of cargo crates and containers in front of the docks.  As she slipped into the shadows of a huge box, the sound of splintering wood and thrown barrels thundered all around her.

“Come out, come out where ever you are!  *CRASH!*”  Moot called out as he shattered a crate with one swipe.

Mephistia was about to move to a new hiding spot when the box she stood behind suddenly became kindling.  Moot raised his huge paws for the death blow when Mephistia did the only thing she could;  She sprayed.

     Moot cried out in pain as the stream had found its mark directly in his eyes and nose.  Mephistia realized that this would be her only chance and jumped on top of him.  Her claws only did superficial damage before Moot connected with a blow that sent her flying backwards.   Moot reared up on two legs as he slowly lumbered towards her, still trying to wipe the musk out of his eyes.

“YOU ARE DEAD!!!!”  he screamed out.

Mephistia scooted backwards until her paw hit something hard and cold.  She looked down to see the MP5 and the two halves of the shoulder strap.  In her mind flashed the images of Allan and how he used the handgun as she picked up the machine gun from off of the ground.

“You first…”  Mephistia cried as she pulled the trigger.

The sound was deafening in her ears as the recoil pulled her forelegs upward.  The stream of bullets made a perfect line straight up Moot’s body and head.  A strange gurgling sound came from what was left of his muzzle as Moot fell forward and then didn’t move.

     Mephistia breathed hard as she held on to the gun with a deathgrip for a long time.  When it finally came to her that it was over, tears began to slowly run down her muzzle as she dropped the gun.  Mephistia then remembered Allan and ran back to his side.

     On the wall was a red stain where his head had hit.

“Allan, can you hear me???” she said as she tried to find even the slighest pulse through his fur.

“I hurt…” slowly came from Allan’s muzzle.

“I’m getting you out of here… Please, hold on…” she said in-between sobs.

“No…”

“What??!?  I can carry you!”

“It’s better… this way…  I can’t go… home… like this, “ he said with ragged breaths, “You… have a chance for a… normal life, now…  I’m stuck like this…. for~”

Allan never finished his words as his head slowly slumped down and his eyes close for one last time.

“AAAALLLLLAAAANNNN!!!!!!!”  was heard by all in those woods that night far and wide as it echoed long and loud.

     Above them on the second story, the director looked down at the scene that had just played out before him.

“I underestimated you, Mr. Jefferies.  My apologies.  You forced me to implement phase 2 sooner than anticipated.”

He turned to his desk and sat down.

With a finger, he then pressed a intercom ‘call’ button.

“Yes?” drifted out of the box.

“Prepare for phase 2.  Have men from our dummy companies handle all deliveries to the town so not too many questions get asked.  Have all utilities and credit card bills still be paid from our accounts until the local economy is back in good standing.  That serum should also unlock the townfolk’s memories, so it shouldn’t take too long before they remember what they did for a living.  Ready my helicopter, and activate the reactor safety overrides.  Make it look like an accident and who survives, survives.  Oh, and make sure one of the doctors find Mr. Jefferies.  I owe him at least that for being the catalyst to this project.  ”

“Yes, sir.”

The director crossed his hands in front of his muzzle, “It’s amazing what could be developed from you own lycanthropy strain…  Now, let’s see if the little werecreatures can live on their own….”
 
 
 

EPILOG:  Two months later….

     It was cold morning in which a young woman walked through the middle of town.  A strong wind blew through her black hair, showing what looked like faint stripes of gray near the middle of her head.  She walked silently up Main St. and turned onto a street recently renamed Jefferies St.  At the end was a small cemetery and she entered it without a single hesitation.  She walked past numerous tombstones to the rear, where a small grove of evergreens grew in a tight circle.  Along the side was a small break in the trees and the woman entered.

     In the center of the ring was as thin, square pillar with the statue of a man on one knee and in-between his legs was a small skunk.  On the front of the pillar was simply inscribed, “He gave his own so that we could have ours.”

     “Hello, Allan…” the woman began after wiping away a tear, “A lot’s changed in the town now that everyone knows who they are.  The houses are now homes once again and people have been trying to rebuild and start over.  Whatever that drug was, it gave us back our memories as well as our human selves.  No amount of gratitude could ever show what the town feels for that, Allan.  Turns out that my name’s Alice and I ran a small restaurant up on the north edge of town. While I’m thinking of it, that lab went up like a Roman candle not shortly after we escaped.  Whatever you did, you did it well.  Speaking of the lab, some of the doctors and their families have come to live in the town.  According to them, their families were threatened if they didn’t cooperate with the experiments and as a way to amend for their past, they’ve worked as general practitioners for the town.  Some of the people don’t trust them, I can’t say I blame them, but they seem like nice people and they’ve gone out of their way to help us.  It’s kind of funny to watch the kids run about, two leggers and four leggers having fun together like nothing was even remotely different.  God, I wish you were here to see it….”

The tears began to flow freely from her as she took a rose from her coat and set it in front of the stone.

“I miss you, Allan…”

“I miss you, too…” drifed on the wind and the woman turned to see who was there.

There was no one in the circle and the wind carried no scents from outside of it.  The woman slowly turned back around to find that the rose was now missing.  She quickly scanned the ground only to find it in the hand of the man stature.

“How did….?”

“I did,” came from behind as a soft hand ran down here cheek.

The woman snapped her neck around to see a giant skunk standing next to her.

“Allan!” she cried as she wrapped her arms around him, “Why, how??”

“One of those doctors you talked of… He found me in a deep coma before the place went up in smoke.  I’ve only been awake for three days, it’s taken me that long to recover from the wounds.”

“We should tell your family!”

“No, it’s best if the world thinks I’m dead.  I don’t need anyone from the lab coming back or the press to breathe down my neck scruff.  This is me, now…  A walking carpet.  I can’t interact with the outside anymore, so the less that know, the better.  The town’s excluded, of course…” Allan said with a slight smile.

“Of course…”

“So, Meph~ I mean, Alice, care to go for a nice four-legged romp through the woods tonight?”

“Mephistia’s fine, coming from you.  And I’d love to,” Alice replied as they walked hand in hand out of the cemetery and back into town, “After we celebrate your life and the town’s second chance.”

There was a cheering group waiting for them as the came back into to town, after all it’s not everyday friends and loved ones come back from the dead.