The Zoo Experiment (Anthro TF - Collab)

    RIIIIIIIING!

    As the bell to end class rang, I slowly lifted my head from my desk, sighing with relief. Another class period done. A few more, and I’d finally be able to go home. As I looked up, I turned to see my friend Arthur, neatly putting his papers away into his folder. “Ready for lunch, Lucas?” he asked, grinning at me. He seemed unusually happy today, though I wasn’t really sure why. Maybe he’d just really enjoyed this particular class. He always seemed to enjoy this class.

    “Eh,” I scoffed listlessly, waving a hand at him. Honestly, unlike what most other students would say, I hated lunch. The putrid smell of the cafeteria food, the rowdiness that even someone like me would cringe at… None of it was very appealing, not in the slightest, especially not as an eating environment. I would much rather avoid that annoying lunch room, and Arthur’s unusual...cheeriness about going there certainly didn’t help me like it at all. For a moment, I considered questioning him about it, but I brushed the thought aside soon after. I had my focus set on something else much more important: Sneaking out of this place the second I had the chance.

    But as I was planning exactly how I was going to do that, a voice suddenly came on over the loudspeaker. “Attention, all students,” it said. I frowned… that voice didn’t sound familiar at all. Maybe they’d gotten someone new to do announcements? “This is an important announcement,” the voice continued. “As per a new school policy, it is now required of all students to be properly vaccinated to prevent the spread of diseases in our school. To make sure this policy is followed, however, we have also employed a professional doctor to administer these vaccines to the students in our school. We ask that all students report to the nurse’s office immediately so that the vaccines can be administered. Thank you for your cooperation.”

    I could only sigh again as the loudspeaker crackled to silence, and it wasn’t from relief this time. Chatter across the classroom quickly erupted. Some people seemed to just laugh it off as if an elaborate April Fool’s prank. Others appeared genuinely concerned. I, for one, I was just tired and didn’t really care. The school did weird things all the time anyway. Well… Okay, I was little intrigued. I never paid any attention in Law class, but even I knew that something wasn’t right about a new, sudden, and mandatory vaccination. Heck, they didn’t even specify what disease it was for. What was going on?

    Arthur, on the other hand, clearly wasn’t concerned. If anything, the announcement seemed to make him even more cheerful, as if the idea of being stuck with a needle was somehow appealing to him. “Come on, let’s go!” he said, grabbing my arm. “We have to get those vaccines quickly if we want to have enough time to eat lunch, right?”

    All I could do for a solid five seconds was simply stare at him. He was strange at times, yes, but being so eager for an injection of all things was bewildering for even him. Nonetheless, I just didn’t feel up to retorting it at the time. “Yeah…” I muttered simply after some time. He did have a point. If it was something that we couldn’t get out of, then as might as well get it over with. All it meant was more time in the welcoming outdoors.

    Still grinning, Arthur eagerly ran down to the nurse’s office, dragging me behind with him. Not surprisingly, there was already a line of people waiting to get in, but luckily it wasn’t too long. As I waited to get in, though, I started becoming more and more concerned about this whole thing. It still made absolutely no sense that they would make us all line up for a vaccine, let alone on such short notice! Noticing that Arthur was looking away from me, I quickly turned to the girl in front of me, tapping her on the shoulder. “Hey…” I said as soon as she turned around. “Does this whole thing seem weird to you, too? I mean… I’m pretty sure they can’t just suddenly require the whole school to get some kind of weird injection, can they?”

    The girl’s face screwed up for a moment, obviously in deep thought. “It is weird…” she whispered after a while, almost as if she was speaking to herself. Then, without another word, she spun back around, her hand shooting up in the air as if she was in class awaiting to be called upon. I wasn’t quite sure why initially until I peered past her. There, standing so still and silently that I never noticed him before, was what could only have been a soldier of sorts, adorned in a white uniform that would fit a battlefield setting much better. His head turned slightly, icy gaze landing on me for a split second and sending a shiver up my spine before it turned to the girl.

    It was then that he left his post, heading straight for us. “You,” he said, pointing to the girl. “You’re up.” His voice was even more terrifying than his demeanor; it was deep and rough, like the kind of voice you would expect to hear from a prison warden. Trembling, the girl walked into the room, leaving me and Arthur at the front of the line. The soldier-looking guy continued to glare at me, making me feel even more nervous. I turned to look at Arthur, noticing that he was still grinning just as wide as he had been when we first got here. How the hell he wasn’t even a little freaked out by any of this was completely beyond me.

    I shut my eyes for a moment, shaking my head of my confusion. Turning back to the soldier, I figured looking at him wasn’t as awkward as looking at Arthur. Besides, I did feel like addressing something. “Hey, I think that girl was trying to ask you about-” I began, but fell silent when his glare grew even more intense. With all the aggression of a drill sergeant, he grumbled, “You’re next,” as if it wasn’t obvious already. To say my nerves were on fire would’ve been an understatement.

    Shaking, I walked past the soldier into the office. Sitting where the nurse usually sat was an older man, with round glasses and most of his hair missing. “Sit down,” he said, in a voice that was just as cold and rough as the soldier’s had been. Getting this vaccine was starting to seem more and more like a bad idea… but I was already in here, so there was no way I was going to be able to get out of it. I sat down in the chair in the front, watching as he walked into the room in the back and came out holding a syringe. I could only watch as he lifted up my sleeve, sticking the needle into my arm and injecting the vaccine into it. It wasn’t that painful, but I was still ridiculously nervous. There was definitely something else going on here, and I was convinced that whatever we were being injected with wasn’t a normal vaccine. “Bring in the next student, please,” said the doctor, turning his back to me.

    The second he was done, it was as if I didn’t exist. I was just another whiny kid to act as a pincushion for him. I didn’t complain. I just wanted to get out of there. Sure enough, a back door to the office that I hadn’t noticed before was left ajar, leading to the hallway beyond it. Without any hesitation, I shuffled my way through it, turning right and trekking down the corridor. I passed the girl I had spoken to along the way. She was sitting on a bench, possibly waiting for a friend or something. We exchanged uneasy glances and it was obvious that she didn’t feel like talking anymore. Heck, neither did I. So, I simply walked past and back out into the hall of the nurse’s office.

    Noticing another nearby bench, I sat down for a bit, trying to calm myself down. A few moments later, I noticed Arthur walking towards me, looking just as happy as he had been looking all day. As he approached, I just stared at him, bewildered. Was there anything that was capable of fazing him? Somehow, even after going through all of that, was he still not concerned about ANYTHING that was going on? Either he was just incredibly naive, or… there was something else going on here. “Hey, ready to go to lunch?” he asked me.

    “Right…” I murmured, standing up. Before any of this started, I had considered inviting Arthur on my little escape mission, but now, I was thinking differently about it. Things were just getting far too unorthodox to be comfortable, and frankly, I needed some fresh air. Alone. So, I began to scope out the nearest exit I could slink out of undetected. “You go on ahead, I’ll be right there… Gotta do something real quick…”

    For the first time since I’d seen him in class, Arthur’s smile fell. But only for a second. “Well… okay,” he said, his grin reappearing as quickly as it had vanished. “Just don’t take too long, okay?” With that, he turned and ran into the cafeteria, leaving me by myself. With a shudder, I turned and ran towards the doors to the outside, quickly making sure nobody was around as I did. As soon as I stepped outside, I felt a momentary wave of relief pass through me, only to be replaced by a stirring of unease. Something was definitely up with this school. Between the sudden vaccination announcement, the stone-faced people handling the procedure, the way Arthur was acting… something was going on, but what? How was I going to figure it out?

    Various questions ran through my mind as I just stood there mere feet from the door. Should I go back home? Should I contact someone for help? Was there any staff member in the school I could trust at the moment? The train of thought with thundering by so fast that I barely noticed when I began to rub a bit at my right wrist. For a moment, I passed it off as nothing more than a nervous tick, but the more I focused on it, the more I realized just why I was doing it. My wrist felt rather...itchy. Was it a bad reaction to the vaccine? After all, I had no idea what it consisted of. As I finally pried my mind from the nagging questions, I peered down at the back of my wrist.

    The moment I saw what it was, I completely froze. There was something on the back of my wrist… something that wasn’t supposed to be there. It looked like my wrist was covered in some kind of light-brown fur… and it was starting to spread across my hand! Eyes wide, I could only watch as it spread up my fingers, covering them as they appeared to thicken slightly. Even more surprising was that my fingernails appeared to be growing out into short claws, and the fronts of my hands were starting to grow out into… pads? What the hell was going on? What was happening to me?

    Confusion, irritation, it all fled my mind to make way for a brewing sense of pure panic. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t real. The words kept rattling in my skull, but I knew it was all far too vivid to be a nightmare or anything of the sort. The fur felt far too real as I ran my fingers across it, the pressure beneath my nails—claws?—throbbing far too much. I felt paralyzed as the coat spiraled up the length of my arm. How? How was it possible?

    Noticing that my shirt was becoming warmer and warmer, I slowly moved my hand towards my chest. I could feel my heart pounding rapidly inside it, but I could also feel something else: more fur beneath my shirt. I quickly lifted my shirt up, only to find that the brown fur had completely spread across my torso, making me look like some kind of mutated animal-like creature. Hands shaking, I ran my fingers through it, and… yep. It was definitely real. The realization caused my stomach to heave, and it was all I could do to keep from throwing up right then and there.

    Somewhere beyond the whirlwind of my thoughts, the intense focus my sight gave to the unnatural mutations spreading down my body, my hearing detected something else. Something almost frightening. Prying my attention away from the tendrils of greyish fur spreading down my sides as much as I possibly could, the racket of deafening kids arose from the building behind me. But it wasn’t the typical rowdiness of every lunch period. No. Those kids sounded...distressed?

    But my thoughts were immediately pulled back to what was happening to my body when I felt a sudden pulling on my spine, followed by a pressure in the back of my pants. It started out small, but it just kept on growing and growing… until my pants could take no more. With a loud rip, I felt whatever was forming burst through the back of my pants, finally growing to its full length. Only… I could feel it. I could feel it behind me, like it was an actual part of my body. My heart pounding even faster, I slowly turned to look behind me, and saw exactly what it was: a tail. A large, grey-furred tail. Attached to my body.

    I would’ve screamed had my throat not felt like it was tied into a knot, constricted by the fur that continued travelling up my neck. It didn’t take a genius to know what came next. I had seen enough werewolf movies in the past to know that. Even then, even as I felt the pressure building in my jaw and in my nose, I wanted to pretend like none of it was really happening. I wanted to distract myself from it in one way or another, as impossible as that seemed. Even as a slender snout extended itself before my very eyes, I felt like I had to focus on something else to keep me sane.

    I closed my eyes, breathing heavily. I didn’t want any of this to be real. I could feel my ears stretching, pointing, becoming massive, but I didn’t want to think about it. I just wanted to… wait. My eyes suddenly shot open, my sensitive ears picking up strange sounds coming from the cafeteria. It almost sounded like… screaming? I immediately tried concentrating, focusing in on individual words being spoken, but I could only pick up a few different ones. Kids crying for help, yelling for something to stop, something about fur… wait, fur?

    “What the hell is wrong with you people?!” I heard someone shriek shrilly. It didn’t take long to recognize it. It was the voice of the girl I had spoken to earlier...with a very animalistic growl to her terrified tone. Just like that, all thoughts of what was happening to me flew from my mind. I whirled back around to the door and sprinted forward. Faster than even the best of the track team, I burst back into the corridor, bolting with some newfound spike of sheer energy until I reached the doors of the lunchroom once more.

    The moment I reached them, I threw the lunchroom doors open, only to be greeted by a sight that made my jaw drop. The lunchroom was filled with students, but none of them looked normal… in fact, they barely even looked human. Most of them were covered in fur of varying colors, from brown to black to white to even orange on some of them. I saw a long feline tail suddenly sprout from the back of one boy’s pants, while one girl’s ears grew and lengthened into rabbit ears. Another boy was staring at his hands in shock as claws grew from his fingertips, and another girl was pulling off her shoes to see her feet stretching out into animal paws. And as they transformed, the students were screaming, panicking, desperately trying to figure out what was happening to them and if there was a way to stop it. The transformations were swiftly dissolving the cafeteria into a state of absolute chaos.

    “Would you look at that!” yet another familiar voice chimed from behind me, one that was far too content given the situation. “I was beginning to think you ditched me, but here you are!” Even before I turned to face him, I knew exactly who it belonged to. Sure enough, no more than a couple feet away, a boy in wire-frame glasses stood all too calmly as his face was quickly being consumed by the last of a half-ocelot transformation. Even then, I could tell very well that it was Arthur. And just behind him, two more of those knife-eyed soldiers...this time armed with what looked like stun guns.

    As I looked at him, I could feel my fists clench, my now razor-sharp teeth clenching at the sight of him. “You bastard!” I yelled, charging at him… only to immediately trip and fall flat on my face. As I looked behind me, I noticed that my legs and feet were already covered in the same light brown fur that was covering my arms and front. Even more shocking was that my feet were growing, lengthening as pads grew on the bottoms and my toes merged and thickened, toenails growing into claws. I groaned, cursing my luck. Of course my feet had to change into paws right as I was running to throw me off balance.

    A slight cackle emitted from somewhere above. Holding a hand to my throbbing nose, I peered up to find Arthur’s feline face gazing down with a smile. A smile that wasn’t simply strange. No. That smile now spelled “sinister”. “Ouch!” he noted. “That’s gotta hurt! Yeah, that’s going to happen if you try to walk for a little while after your feet turn digitigrade. Also, I wouldn’t try anything if I were you. Just saying. These guys here are pretty trigger-happy, and being half a jackal isn’t going to help you against tasers.” Just to prove his statement, the two soldiers raised their weapons towards me, as if I could pose any threat as a heap on the floor with a bleeding nose and a temporary inability to even walk. Those disgusting bastards.

    I looked up at him, feeling my blood boil. “I suppose you know why all this is happening…” I muttered, glaring into his animalistic eyes. “And I’m also guessing that it has something to do with those injections we got earlier today. Explains why you weren’t intimidated or confused by anything we went through.” I looked up at the soldiers, both of them giving me the same stone-faced glares that the one in the nurse’s office had given me. “So… are you going to explain what’s going on to me, or are you just going to let me lay here until you’re ready to carry out whatever twisted plan you have for all of us?”

    Another cackle, somehow worse than the last. Once again, Arthur spoke. “Well, yeah, I guess I could. Nothing you can do against a government organization anyway. See, my parents are pretty popular in the biomechanics field, especially because they're a big part of the company that these soldiers and scientists come from. The point of all this was be able to come up with a way to create an army of super soldiers on short notice in the case that conflict breaks out or something. You know, to get the jump on the enemy, whoever they might be. What better way to make super soldiers than by combining their DNA with those of the best creatures of the animal kingdom? All they needed was a way to be able to test if all this would work in a large but isolated and controlled setting, and what better than this very school? Does that satisfy your need for a cliche plot explanation, Lucas?”

    I rolled my eyes. “That does sound pretty cliche…” I muttered. “So… what exactly do you plan on doing to us now?” I looked around at all of the other students in the cafeteria, noticing that there were soldiers surrounding them on all sides. “I mean, I’m assuming you’re not just going to leave us here, right? I’m pretty sure the entire town would freak out if they discovered that all of their high school students had suddenly transformed into half-animal freaks. Do you have some kind of explanation for that?”

    “Yeah, actually,” Arthur chuckled, squatting down before me. “Pretty smart thinking for a guy who skips class every other period. That’s why we’re going to cover our tracks. It’ll be like walking a national park trail. You know, “leave no trace” and whatnot. That’s why we have this.” He paused momentarily, reaching behind his back before producing a black cylinder no bigger than a few inches in length. At the end, a reddish button. “You see, we’ve put a few...gifts around this school in very specific locations. At the push of this button, those gifts will spark a chain reaction in the boiler system, therefore making this entire building go ka-boom and ridding it of any evidence that we were even here. Of course, you and the rest of the students are the evidence, so… I think you get the idea I’m aiming toward, right?”

    I could feel the blood drain from my face as he spoke. I couldn’t believe this… was he really willing to kill us all? Just for the sake of his parents’ little experiment? I felt my fists clench once again, claws digging into my flesh. But I didn’t care. All I wanted was to wipe that horrible smirk off of his face… but I couldn’t do a thing with those two guards standing right behind him. “You little shit…” I muttered, my voice hampered by my heavy breathing. How long had he been planning this? Come to think of it, I couldn’t remember ever seeing him at the school before the year began. Did that mean he’d been planning on killing me for the entire time we had known each other? Was his whole purpose for coming here just to use us for this twisted project, then dispose of us like worthless fodder? Just thinking about that possibility made me feel sick to my stomach.

    “It’s really nothing personal,” he assured with that sickeningly sweet tone of his, as if he somehow read my mind. Than again, knowing everything that was ensuing around me, I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually could. He continued. “I promise. That’s just how this organization works. Experiment, then find the cheapest and easiest way to cover the tracks. It just so happens that blowing everything to smithereens works so well. There! Now that you know everything, I say it’s about time these fine gentlemen and I make like a tree and-”

    A thunderous roar drowned out his voice, emitting from somewhere behind me. Craning my neck as much as I could, I caught sight of one girl that had become a beast of lioness...and she was actually fighting back against one of the guards. No. No, she wasn’t simply fighting. She was beating him to a pulp, his weapon in shambles across the linoleum and his uniform being torn from his body like it was nothing more than printer paper.

    For a moment, everyone was too shocked to move, even the guards. The girl looked up, dropping the guard’s battered body to the ground. “What is wrong with all of you?” she yelled, and my eyes instantly widened. It was the same girl from earlier… the one who had been waiting in line with me to get the vaccines. “Are you all just going to stand around and let yourselves get blown up? We’re stronger than these people now! Why can’t you see that? Fight back, dammit!”

    For a second, nobody moved. And then… chaos. Absolute chaos. Left and right, students began lashing out at the soldiers around them, tearing their weapons from their hands and knocking them back before proceeding to pummel them mercilessly. Shots of electricity fired from the soldiers’ weapons, but not a single one hit its target; the students were moving too quickly to be hit. Some of the guards even tried to run away, only to be captured and thrown to the ground before they could make it more than a few steps. Once again, the cafeteria had descended into madness… only this time, it was in the favor of the students.

    Just then, I felt raw power suddenly rush into my legs, my pulse quickening and my courage rising at the sight. I knew what I had to do. Without another moment’s hesitation, I rocketed from the floor. My eyes were trained on one target and one target only: Arthur. Before he even realized it, I collided with his stunned form and brought him to the floor. Beyond the sheer racket of chaos, I heard something plastic skitter across the floor nearby. I paid no mind to it. All I wanted in that moment was to make the sicko that I once called a friend pay for what he did.

    But despite his position, I could still see that same sickening grin plastered across his face. “So… what happens now?” he asked. “You planning on killing me? Thinking about being the hero and saving your fellow classmates from being blown up? Or maybe you just want some sweet revenge on me for betraying you like I did?” He chuckled to himself. “Well, I suppose it doesn’t really matter. Just a heads up, though: like I told you earlier, my parents are pretty high up in this organization. And they happen to care for me pretty deeply. So if you do decide to kill me… well, let’s just say that they’re not going to be too happy. And I can guarantee you, when they get their hands on you, they’ll be able to come up with something waaaaay worse for you than just being blown up with the school. Just something to consider while you decide what to do with me.”

    My blood was boiling. I could feel my heart pounding hard against my rib cage. I swear, my vision tainted red. All I wanted was to wipe that smug expression of his ugly ocelot face. Fist raised high above my head, pointed straight at him, I found myself frozen. Behind the blinding rage, I knew very well he was right. This wasn’t some petty schoolyard gang-on-gang duel. No. I was dealing with an entire government organization, something I surely had no hope of beating, no matter what I did. The eerie buzzes of tasers being charged right behind my head only proved that all the more. If I were to lay another finger on Arthur, that would be game over. I would be sent off to some isolated lab and experimented on for the rest of my life like those movie characters. Or worse. Far, far worse.

    For a moment, I happened to look up from him… and that’s when I noticed it. The remote that Arthur had been holding was lying just a few feet away, all by itself. The exact same one that he had planned to use to blow up the school. Realizing that it was only a matter of time before one of the soldiers noticed it, I quickly lifted Arthur up and threw him against a nearby wall, before diving for the remote and picking it up. Once I had it, I did the only other thing I could do: I ran. I ran faster than I even had in my entire life, determined to keep the remote as far away from Arthur and the other soldiers as I possibly could.

    Zings of tasers being fired in my direction whizzed, but faded quickly. I was already far beyond their range. A commanding yell echoed through the halls before the sound of pummeling boots came about. I glanced over my shoulder to see the guards pursuing, but not nearly fast enough to reach a being that was far above their league. That was barely even human anymore. I couldn’t help but grin widely. No matter what happened from that point on, I had won. I. Had. Won.

    Once I was sure I had lost them, I looked around, my heart beating wildly. Noticing a nearby window, I glanced out and saw a large helicopter sitting in the middle of the parking lot. Odd… how had I not noticed that before? Suddenly, my ears perked up; I could hear voices, coming from below me right outside the window. I looked down and saw a group of soldiers running out the school’s front doors, heading for the helicopter. As I watched, though, I noticed that two of them seemed to be carrying someone between them… but not someone who looked fully human. Another look confirmed that it was Arthur, his tail completely limp and his head seeming to droop slightly. Had he gotten injured somehow?

    “Oh…” I murmured to myself as my thoughts finally caught up to me. I must’ve been so blinded by anger and committed to escaping that, for a moment, it slipped my mind that I had slammed the kid against the wall. Oh well. He deserved at least that. My focus shifted from him to the whole scene ensuing just below, my eyes darting back and forth as I followed soldier after soldier darting past the window, escorting scientists and whoever else was involved in the experimental fiasco. The rotor blades on the helicopter began to spin. They were retreating.

    “Hey! You! Jackal kid!” I quickly spun around, hearing a voice that I immediately recognized. Sure enough, the lioness girl from earlier was running up to me, her eyes focused on the remote that I was holding. “You okay there? I saw you throw that kid against the wall earlier. Looks like you left him with one hell of a concussion!” She walked up to me, grabbing the remote in one of her large paws. “Anyway, we should probably figure out what to do about this thing. After all, as long as it’s still active, this school is still in danger. What do you think?”

    “Uh…” was about all I could manage initially. The switch from nothing but sheer chaos and intensity to something just short of a casual conversation was definitely disorienting. The fact that I was standing face-to-face with a six-foot tall anthropomorphic lioness that was once a girl just shy of my own height didn’t help any. How was she suddenly so...so calm? So collected? She had just been transformed into a freak of nature! Not too long ago, she was on the verge of tearing a guy’s throat out! Now she was acting as if we had long been allies in some battle and talking about discarding a lethal weapon was something we did regularly. Well, whatever. Weird shit was happening very, very quickly now. I chose to simply take it in stride. “I… I don’t know. Let’s just try to get everyone out of here first.”

    The girl nodded. “We already have some soldiers that we captured in the cafeteria, so they shouldn’t cause us any problems anymore. Getting everyone out shouldn’t be too difficult with them out of the way.” She looked down at herself, frowning. “At this point, the only thing I’m really concerned with is everybody being afraid to leave. I can’t really blame them, though. If the circumstances were any different, I don’t think I would want to be seen like… this.” She looked back up at me, her eyes filled with determination. “But this is important. This school is still rigged to blow up, and the only way to guarantee everyone’s safety is to get them all outside. So… I’m probably going to need your help with that. You feel up to it?”

    For a moment, I just stared. The confidence in her voice was...was astounding. As insane as this all was, especially her courage, I could only agree with her. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m up for it.” Not long after I said it, I found myself smiling. It wasn’t much, especially with my mouth wrapped around a long muzzle, but I could definitely tell that a smile was what I was trying for. As I kept my gaze on the girl, I could tell she noticed I was smiling as well. Not long after, I took note of her own lips curling into a smile of her own. Alas, the warm second was fleeting. After all, we had a new mission to focus on, one that was the most important of all.

    “Great! Let’s go!” And with that, she ran off, with me following closely behind her. Now that the adrenaline from earlier had worn off, I could definitely feel that this body was going to take some getting used to. Running on the front of my paws was definitely weird, and feeling the air against all of my fur as I did so was even more bizarre. The added weight of a tail behind me felt odd as well, and I wasn’t even sure what to make of the muzzle that was now permanently in my vision, or how weirdly sensitive my ears felt atop my head. But that was okay; I knew that I could get used to it all, and it was a small price to pay for the power that I could feel surging through my body. I could feel how much stronger, faster, and more agile I had gotten, and saying that it didn’t feel great would be a flat out lie. I felt like I could do anything in this body!

    It felt as if barely any time at all had passed when the girl and I reached the cafeteria once more. Maybe I was so distracted with myself that I barely noticed. Maybe we actually were able to run that fast given the obvious physical enhancements. In any case, we reached our destination, the chaos having rapidly died down. Nothing more of the fiasco remained except baffled chatter. Every one of the students had completed their transformations and appeared to be growing accustomed to them rather well. Some wandered around in a daze, some were huddled with their friends exploring what had come of their original human bodies, some were even sitting at lunch tables with trays of food before them as if the mutant riot was an everyday occurrence. Others were being aided by the still-human lunch staff and nurses with some minor injuries and wardrobe malfunctions. Still more, some of the tougher-looking students had some of the organization’s soldiers pinned beneath them, charger cords and hair ties bound around their wrists and ankles to keep them from fighting back. Heh, as if they could. Most of the imprisoned guards were either unconscious or on the verge of being so. Everything was quite calm.

    “Hey, everybody!” the girl suddenly hollered over the yammering. Just short of a roar, it definitely caught the attention of every single person. “Thank you. It’d probably be best if we all evacuated the school soon. I don’t know how many of your heard what those bastards did the boiler system, but in short, they rigged this whole building to explode. Don’t panic or anything, because we have the trigger right here.” She held up the black cylinder to the crowd to prove her statement. Then, with a clawed finger, she pointed at me. “This kid right here swiped it away from those guys before they could use it.”

    “Uh, yeah,” I confirmed, caught a bit off guard. “Yeah. I did. So, just like she said, it’s probably best if we all get out of here. Like, now. Just in case.” Just then, the wailing of what could only have been police sirens met my ears. They sounded distant, but they were definitely approaching, and fast. Surely, someone outside of the school building must have heard the insanity ensuing inside or saw the sketchy helicopter on the field before it took off. In any case, I smiled to myself and sighed with sheer relief. Finally, help was about to arrive. Judging by the expressions of those around me, they must have heard the sirens as well and felt the very same way. So, without another word spoken, I started towards the very same door I had slipped out of before, a crowd of fellow classmates right behind my tail.