The Changed

Chapter One

I never really knew the world before it turned to crap. But from what I've read and what little I remember I know that once upon a time the oceans were clean and blue and not poisoned. That plants and crops actually grew everywhere, not just specially treated areas. That there were billions of unChanged people, people like those few million left in the world all living in or nearby the three main cities across America. And that there was no Changed, no ugly-ass mutants that were once people, making humans even more of an endangered species. I know. How unrealistic is that?

But the world now, isn't completely without hope. There are Hunters, different from the Enforcers that keep the peace in the three cities housing almost all that's left of the human species. The Hunters are the best of the best. They deal with the Changed, making the world safer, one mutant at a time. That's where I come in. Niall and I.

* * * *

"Well? What have we got?" Niall asks, crouching down next me behind a wall, poking his head above mine, peering through the completely rotten window frame.

"Nice of you to wake up." I grumble.

"I thought so."

I chuckle quietly and roll my eyes. I have been stuck in this position, scoping out the derelict apartment block from behind the smashed glass window of an all-together abandoned block down the street with nothing but a snoring Niall to amuse me.

"I haven't seen anything too exciting," I answer his previous question.

"We never do," he sighs melodramatically. "So, what's the verdict?"

"Well, there's definite Changed activity." I shrug my shoulders.

"Right, well let's get to work then," he sighs. Niall is so full of it, he loves every minute of his life, almost as much as he likes being a drama queen. Anyway he knows never to go in anywhere infested with Changed when it's dark. Standing up from the crouch position, he catches a glimpse of his reflection in a piece of broken glass on the ground, by his feet.

"Damn it, Ren! Stop drawing on my face when I sleep!"

"You were snoring. Snoring is fair game." I say as if I'm not that interested anymore but can't stop the grin spreading across my face.

"Every time," he grunts repeatedly while licking his thumb and scrubbing at the mustache and uni-brow I gave him using the charcoal he uses to draw. Swear words spill from his lips as I laugh at him making it so much worse, smudging the mustache into a small beard.

I see something move out of the corner of my eye. The smile leaves my face and the laughter leaves my eyes. I swing my head back, bringing my scope to my eyes and fixating on the building.

Niall picks up on my sudden change of attitude and stops scrubbing. "What?"

"Nothing," I drag out the word. "I just thought I saw-" There it is again. A large, pure black form just peeking out of the corner of a window. Just a form rising and falling softly. Like it's breathing, like it's sleeping. "Crap." I say quietly.

"What?" Niall snaps.

"Check this out for me." I offer up the scope and tell him what window to look through. He, somewhat hesitantly, lifts them up to his face.

"Changed activity. Nothing we can't handle. Why?"

"Look at the form, the colour," I press.

Niall looks again, not seeing the danger I'm sensor. He lowers the scope and looks intently at me.

"Ren, what is it?"

"I dunno. I just feel..." I shake my head, unable to find an apt word to describe the uneasiness of the situation.