Shifters

Chapter 3

Jared sat on the porch of his house in the small town he had chosen to move to.  It wasn’t easy getting out.  His skills and “immortality” had been invaluable to the military. His last mission had been with had been disturbing but at least he managed to save Alex. 

He had ran with Alex dragging him for as long as he thought Alex could deal with and when he stopped he could hear the vampire things following him. He wasn’t sure why he couldn’t back at the little village. Maybe it was the liquid that was running in those tunnels.

Listening to them in the woods, he knew they were vampires. But, different, stronger, changed somehow.  He had forced Alex to climb up and hold on to his back. Threatening him that if he fell off he would have to stop and they’d both die. Alex had held on. He wasn’t sure how he did for so long, in the cold with his leg.

But he did.

Damn humans. 

They made it back to the landing area where the helicopter was and had flown Alex and him out of Alaska back to the base in the states.  They had been debriefed and he had been grilled almost mercilessly for weeks before they finally were satisfied he hadn’t been part of it.   He knew they had gone to that small town and found the cabins, the hatch, and the hallways.  The foul smelling liquid.

What they did find on the floor of that hallway was a small splatter of some odd liquid that was unidentified.

The scientists wanted to talk to him. About his reactions, what he felt. All that scientific crap. He went to the labs and was made to wait for an obscene amount of time.

Which he knew was on purpose.

After the details that he gave them he was, no doubt, going to be subjected to testing.  It was part of his contract.  If needed he was to submit to testing.  Although he had added in a few of his own clauses. 

Damn scientists would have carved him and the others up if given the chance.  Therefore he had come to an agreement with them.  He knew there were others out there like him.  Some weren’t in control. Never taught the ways in which they could control their bodies, their power.  He had found other Shifters like himself, some sane enough. Content to live their lives as a normal person as best they could.  Some out of their minds hell bent on destroying whatever they could, however they could.  There was no hope for them. Their minds were lost a long time ago. After they were hunted down and killed, the bodies were turned over to science. 

Others like him were given the chance to become part of a team. With Jared leading it of course.  They were given the chance to learn how to control and use the gifts they had.  They could join the military branch he had started or go on their way. Of course it was never as easy as that. The ones who did not want to join the military had to be tracked and watched carefully.

The testing they wanted to do was to gauge his reaction to the substance the found to see if that did indeed cause his problem to stay in human form.  It really was a simple test this time. Just sit in a room near the liquid. That was all. But that was enough.

Within two minutes he was straining to control his shifting, using every ounce of will power to remain in human form. But it had failed after four minutes he had shifted and flew into a rage.  He had smashed through the wall making a horrible mess. Knocking over equipment and breaking most of the scientist’s electronic devices. Whatever it was had him unable to control his shifting. 

Alex came in, had him sedated and ordered them to remove all of it from his presence.  It took about 15 minutes for him to shift, half awake, back into human form.  And another hour for the damn tranquilizers to wear off.  He remembered seeing Alex grin when his eyes had opened. Damn man, thought it was funny.  He remembered hearing Alex tell him they thought it had some kind of silver type properties. But the scientists weren’t quite sure.