The Contagion

.18.

"You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending."

~C. S. Lewis.

We all followed Ellen and walked through the compartments. Ellen's shoulders were tense. "What is it, Ellen?" Joe asked keeping pace with her.

"It's Jenny." She replied her voice tense. Her heels clicked loudly on the compartment floor. My palms began to shake. Jenny was bitten. Jenny was infected. Adrian told us that it was best if she was killed.

Adrian was right.

The stench of blood hit my nostrils as soon as I entered the compartment. Someone was dead. "Get away from me." We heard a man say.

"Who's that?" Billy whispered.

"I don't know," Joe replied. Joe went ahead of us with Ellen following closely behind him. We crossed the fifth compartment and when we reached the sixth compartment, my eyes widened in horror.

We saw Adrian crawling away from Jenny. Jenny's back was towards us as she snarled at Adrian and slowly walked towards Adrian. My lookout Kate. Suddenly the door opens and the Mutants grabs my hand pulling me out of the running train. I scream as his claws dig into my skin.

I fall face first on to the gravel and roll into the bushes. The world spins and I think I hit my head against the tree. I badly bruised my arm and my entire arm is filled with cuts. I could feel blood seeping out of my bruises. My mouth was filled with mud and I spit it out. I heard snarling sounds and my eyes scan the pitch dark forest around me.

Will you be able to defend yourself? I heard Dee's voice in my mind. Old memories resurfaced as I was transported back to Dee's training sessions in our basement. I was hopeless in combat training as I would always be dreaming about my dead parents. I would always wonder how did my mother die?

I heard a snap of a twig in the forest and my eyes darted to a figure in the dark. Then a growl sounded to my right, then to my left and then behind me. I was trapped. I felt its breath hot on my neck but I kept my calm. Minutes passed by and then a female Mutant appeared before me. We were staring at each other, looking who would make the first move. A loud growl erupted from its throat and it lunged towards me.

My fighting instincts kicked in and instead of attacking it, I jumped over it, moving out of their circle. The Mutants bared their canines at me, obviously annoyed. My powers began to grow unstable, begging me to be let loose. It growled at me and I growled back. My teeth turned into canines and my body shifted into a wolf.

The Mutants were taken aback. They never thought about me being a Werewolf Hybrid. I stared at each one of them shaking my tail as a warning. The female Mutant on the right shook her head in fury and made noises conveying messages to the other three. From what I could decipher, it wasn't common animal language passed through mind-links as no one was the Alpha here.

Seeing them distracted, I lunged at the Mutant and knocked him to the nearby tree. The others growled in anger and they came running towards me. Without further thinking, I ripped its throat with my claws killing it instantly. Without wasting any second, I ran as fast as my feet could take me with the female Mutant hot on my heels.

The trees whizzed passed me and the familiar feeling of running with the wolves from my pack crossed my thoughts. The moon was full and the tree leaves were glistening in the dark like silver paint on a child's project. I took a sharp right and the trees began to clear giving rise to human settlements. I was running fast. The river had appeared now and the water was rushing downstream. I quickly glanced back and then towards the human settlements across the river.