Mᴜᴛᴀɴᴛ Aᴘᴏᴄᴀʟʏᴘsᴇ 3: Sᴄᴀʀʀᴇᴅ ❪✓❫

27 || 𝐒𝐍𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐘

𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝗼𝐫'𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕

The trees in this environment are thick and will continue to grow that way. Since the infection began and killed most of the human race in just a month or two, plants have overgrown and crawled on surfaces of buildings. Others on cars, some found a spot to sprout from house floors or created a bush in a shed.

These trees had grown so thick, monkeys could possibly use these large plants as a jungle gym and a suitable home.

But for someone that's very athletic and stealthy, this is the perfect hiding place to stalk food or people wandering around in the forest. A pair of curious yellow eyes watched every move his prey made. His ears rattled, nearly getting too excited, and had to calm himself before striking at her on the ground.

He climbed the limbs of thick branches and transformed his body various times to fit the tree arms. One squirrel paw in front of the other, chattering and letting his tail twitch. And changing shape to a tree kangaroo, a snake, then a ring-tailed lemur.

All he does is just stare at this survivor look around for something that may not be there, picking up sticks, snapping them in two, and tossing them to the side. She threw rocks at trees, kicked the dirt, and stopped every few minutes to listen to her surroundings.

Then he changed his shape as he sat on a branch and watched the female survivor. She looked surprised to see this dead person sitting up against a tree with fungal plates on its face. When she backed up in fear slowly, he climbed down the tree without a sound, soaked a cloth in sleepy chloroform, and sneaks up.

The female stopped and so did he, both are quiet and wait. She felt like she was being watched-- she is. While she got nervous about her surroundings, he lunged behind her and smashed the cloth over her nose and mouth. As she struggled to break free, he whispered in her pointed ear that lowered from its losing strength. His overheating breath mutters, "Shh..."

He felt her relax in his arms and brought her to the ground as she went completely limp.

Moments later, he formed himself into a Kodiak bear; one of the largest bears in the world and are giants to humans. The bear carries the knocked-out girl on his fuzzy back and retreats to the area he lives in, feeling her breathe. He was worried she'll wake up and make a scene after a short nap.

He thought if he took her away from the dangerous areas of infected animals then she will be happy where there is a bed and food. His paws walk him for more than twenty-seven miles up north, past a mall, through a field, and walking up to his home that's covered up by towering trees. This cabin has been customized and fixed up by the bear's master a few months ago.

The Kodiak can still smell the trail that belonged to his boss. And his boss trusts him AND his sister to watch after the cabin while he was away. But this Kodiak bear is disobeying one rule: never bring a stranger into the cabin.

The bear carefully slid the survivor off his back and became a teenage boy with pointed ears and his own tail, connected to a fit torso leading up to strong shoulders bound with a defined mandible. His ears trilled when he looks at the entrance of the cabin and waited for his sister to emerge from the house. But she didn't come out of the house.

The brother can smell her nearby and soon got a surprise when she fell from the tree behind him with a loud thud, perfectly landing on her feet. She greeted him with a few rattles from her ears. "Who the hell is this?" Her ears spoke to him, mimicking a rattlesnake or a dozen high-pitched water drops dripping at once. This is their own way of communicating quietly.

He responded, his own ears trilling at her. "Found her wandering."

She scoffed. "Where? Around the cabin?"

"Out there." He stood in his place by the unconscious girl.

"Kodiak!" She used her voice. "You brought someone from the outside here?"

"If you haven't noticed, Amber, we don't get a lot of guests!" Kodiak pointed at the girl on the dirt and pile of scattered leaves. "She's just like us."

"It doesn't matter! We were told to have no visitors! You can't follow that?"

"She was alone!"

"And away from here! She has no reason to be here." Amber yelled back with her arms crossed. She's always been the smart one and her older twin brother, Kodiak never followed his thoughts but chased his actions. He brings weary beings back home like little kids do with stray kittens.

Amber's eyes look at Kodiak's hands. It's the bottle of chloroform. "Are you serious?!" She walked up and snatched the bottle from him. "You used Boss' limited supplies?! He said not to use it unless of an emergency!" She held it up to her brother's face.

He sighed and scratched his head. "I'm sorry." He rattles in various patterns.

"Really? Boss will come home and see his chloroform bottle is half empty. Don't say sorry to me, say it to him when he gets back." Then she glared at the still shifter on the ground. "You gotta get rid of her." She said verbally.

"She's thin as a damn toothpick. We need to feed her at least." He says. "Come on, Amber. We need to be the good guys and help others. Feeding this girl won't hurt."

Amber doesn't say anything for about a minute and that minute was just silence. She is the kind that follows rules and does what she's told so she won't get in trouble. But Kodi did say that they need to be the good guys. There aren't a whole lot of that these days. She makes her choice on what she wants to do with the girl. "Leave her out to be with the elements, they will judge her strength."

Kodiak flusters his ears, undecided. He doesn't think that this is a good idea. But he still disobeyed and took the girl inside.