The Degenerate (TO BE REWRITTEN...SOON)

CHAPTER 20: Files

Chapter 20: Files

"Banner?" She said, breathless and disbelieving, as if she had expected me to be dead as much as I had her. Phoebe's skin was smeared with dirt and her clothes were filthy, hair looked as though it had been cut by a chainsaw. I wasn't sure if I wanted to greet her or run away scared.

My throat made some kind of unintelligible noise, too dry to form words. A million questions were swimming on my tongue, and even if I could've spoken my brain was drawing a blank. 

"Oh my God, you're...you're changing, aren't you?" She said. A million questions perched at the tip of my tongue, but my head was spinning so fast I could hardly speak.

As she cautiously stepped closer to me, probably wary of my defensive position, her skin morphed into lmottled brown scales, matching the surrounding rocks and sand.

My eyes bugged out of my skull, the change so unexpected. I knew what she could do- I remembered seeing her skin doing the exact same thing back at the warehouse. Of course, I'd never seen her in full armor.

"We can talk later. Right now, we got to get the hell outta dodge-" A shout and a rain of bullets showered near us. Phoebe shoveled some of my weight with her brawny arms and we ran into the brush. Well, she ran and I tried not to slow us down. But I'd just gone through a week of hell and barely had the strength to walk more than five yards.

With all the smoke and gunfire and sulfur surrounding me, it was had not to panic. And we all know what happens when I panic. The amplified adrenaline rush pumped in my veins, pupils dilated, palms got sweaty... I was all to familiar with the symptoms. I couldn't let the monster take control of me again. I was stronger than that night in the parking lot, than that day in the gas station bathroom.

But I couldn't take a minute to calm down. There were blades on our tails and if I slowed I'd be shot or captured. The oasis was crumbling around us, and as Phoebe pulled me along, my control started slipping. This time, though, it was different. There was no internal, ironically poetic battle between the monster and I. I was hungry, and the blades were being handed to me like candy on Halloween.

There was a slight shift in mindset- from panicky, flight-mode human to panicky, fight-mode animal- and the blood pumping in my veins put strength in my muscles, like I was taking in a buttload more oxygen than I normally could.

I must've slowed us down through that short transition, though, because almost immediately after my shift about three blades popped out from the brush. How dare they have the audacity to think they can control us, to hunt us down like this! Somewhere inside me, that leftover guilt from killing that blade broke apart. Everything went blank except my rage. He deserved it! It was kill or be killed and I was not about to let the latter happen.

Phoebe saw them and gave me a knowing look. I shook my head. She had no weapons, and I didn't know if her scales could stand the bullets. "Trust me," she whispered before throwing herself at the blades. They opened fire.

I didn't look towards her as I charged towards the blade closest to me, dodging the bullets like a ballet dancer. The sound riveted in my ears, vibrating through my body. It excited me, seemed to match my pulse.

In the back of my mind, behind all of the gears churning at super sonic speed, I was absolutely in awe.

I elbowed the blade in the throat, causing him to loosen his grip on his gun (which, summing up all my knowledge in firearms, wasn't very big) and butted him in the temple with it.

The next blade to go ended up shooting me in the leg. I fell on my knees and pulled my leg from under me to observe the damage. There was nothing but a big red mark. They used rubber bullets. It hurt like hell, but there was no horrid, bleeding wound. Still, enraged at the offense, I charged him like a lioness (or a rhinoceros, since grace was something I was not known for), missing most of the shots.