Calisto Effect

Over her shoulder, she could see black smoke billowing from the hospital half a mile away, the glow of fires from riots and carnage deep in town, where the **** had spread from the hospital onto the streets. She didn't want to think about what was going on out there; she felt ashamed enough already. A ragged cough from her passenger drew her attention to the broken man in her arms. Officer Clemens was hacking up blood again, the sleeve of his hospital gown stained as he wiped his mouth and looked back at the ruined town in the distance, his eyes flickering, fading in and out of consciousness. Moving slowly and carefully so his condition wouldn't worsen, Sara crouched to a stop under a bridge, an icy river cutting between the town and farmland further on. It wasn't perfect, but for now it was enough to catch her breath.

"I'm sorry, John... I'm so sorry..."

Gently lowering him to the ground, Sara huddled close to keep him warm, the cold night air making the frail man shiver as he clutched his hospital gown tighter for warmth. Even crouched on her knees, Sara stood twice the man's height and could still stand, her ebony black fur bristling in the sharp wind, yet the cold had no effect on her. Her muscular frame was solid and powerful; her arms alone were as big as the police officer's body. She curled her ten-foot-long tail around the prone man and herself to keep him from shivering. Pressing him close to her ample chest, her six large breasts molded around his chest and shoulder, keeping him warm with her own body heat.

Looking John over, she noticed his chest wraps had come loose, his breathing erratic as the poor man tried to inhale with broken ribs and a collapsed lung. Some dark twisted thought entered her mind just then, a predator's curiosity as she eyed the caked blood and soft skin of the man she kept warm, wondering if she could taste the coppery scent of blood filling her nostrils. Wincing her eyes and gritting her teeth, Sara slammed her fist into the stone foundation of the bridge, creating a terrible thud that shook the foundation.

"NO! I won't be like them, NEVER BE LIKE THEM!"

Hot tears ran down her face, beating back the monster inside her. Breathing in sharply, she shut her eyes and went back to her breathing techniques. It was like pulling back the reins of some terrible monster inside of her, shutting out the world and driving the worst impulses of this new body out. Raking her claws against the stone wall at her side, she could feel the aggression fade, the blood lust evaporate as it finally drained from her, and she exhaled. Opening her eyes, she looked down and back out into the town over the bridge, her mind clear for now as her ears perked at the sounds of screaming and alarms going off in the distance.

Another sound then caught her pointed ear, the light ping of glass hitting snow. Looking down, she spotted the small test tube she had stolen from her lab to present to those monsters in the forests. Somehow, it had survived after her clothing had been reduced to clinging scraps of cloth hanging from the sharp spines jutting from her back. Picking it up gently with just two of her clawed fingers, she eyed the rubber stopper, then looked back at Clemens, the man turning pale in the cold night air. His injuries were worsening, and the cold wasn’t helping. She looked between the tiny vial in her massive hand and the broken man shivering in her arms. Closing her eyes, she silently offered a prayer.

“Please let this work.” Unscrewing the vial and gently opening the man’s mouth to pour the contents down his throat.

For a few seconds, nothing happened as she watched John struggle to breathe, the beast woman holding him close to keep him warm. But then she noticed something. The bruising around his arm and chest began to fade, and a faint crackle of bones reknitting soon caught her attention. Looking down at his bare legs and feet, she saw them twitch, his toes curling as colour filled his pale limbs. Gasping for a deep breath and coughing as he rolled onto his side, Officer Clemens regained his ability to breathe now that his rib cage was no longer shattered.

“EASY! Easy…” She said soothingly, watching as the man stumbled to his bare feet in the snow and got up to stand. His arms instantly wrapped around his body to keep warm as he shivered.

“Wha… The fuck…?”

Getting his bearings and looking out at the sounds of carnage in the town, he was startled by an explosion. As he was about to take a step back, a massive, clawed hand reached out to help steady him back on his feet. Snapping around to see what caught him, the first thing Officer Clemmens saw was the reptilian eyes of a large Amalgam with her arm outstretched to catch him.

“AAAAAAAH!”

Tumbling back and crawling backwards on his hands and kicking his bare feet trying to find an escape, John nearly panicked when Sara gently reached out and grabbed hold of his hand to keep him from trying to run off.

“JOHN! It’s me.” She called out, trying to calm him down. Her voice was a deep rumble, but one that made the man pause after hearing her words. “It’s me…”

No longer resisting when he found she wasn’t going to hurt him, John sat down in the snow. Still dumb struck by the events of the night and what was still going on around him. Realizing he wasn’t trying to run away, Sara let him go, hugging herself before bringing her claws over to the scraps of clothing still clinging to her frame in a futile attempt to make herself decent in his eyes and failing miserably.

“What happened to you?” He asked, approaching her despite the sting of the cold on his bare feet as she pulled herself under the bridge to hide herself. “What’s happening to the town?”

Hugging herself more tightly, Sara stroked her fingers through her hair, still surprised to find a pair of swooping horns on her scalp. Locking eyes with the man, she looked down at her claws, closing them and hugging herself again, now more tightly.

“What I deserve.”

Steeling himself, John sat down next to the hulking creature, looking up at her as she lowered her horned head in sorrow.

“I… I found them by accident. That crash you first found me at, she planned to kill me for crashing into her… Maybe even eat me, until she found out for whom I worked.” Wiping the tears from her eyes, Sara looked out from her hiding place at what was going on outside. “She brought me to the others; I took samples and tried to create a serum. Something that would help you heal anything… I used it on you.”

His breath hitching in his throat, John padded over, worrying that he’d become one of those monsters attacking the town, until she rested a cawed hand over his shoulder to calm him down.

“No, it worked. MY formula worked. You won’t become one of those… What I am now.” She sighed, her ears behind her like a scared animal. “Heh… It’s ironic; they expected me to fail. They expected that whatever I would create would lead to more of what they are now.”

“If your formula worked, why did everyone who took it at the hospital all change?” Asked John, still scarred by the experience and what he saw.

“My ‘coworkers’ stole my samples and padded them off as the complete formula. Then they got me fired after proving I was keeping a side project.” Her yellow, reptilian eyes narrowed as she growled under her breath. “I’d like to know where those little pissants are now!”

“I think I saw them at the hospital when you found me. What’s left of them anyway…”

Sara whimpered at that, bringing her hands to her snout. She was already weeping when John gently rested a hand over her burly shoulder.

“It wasn’t your fault.” He tried to console her. “From what you told me, you were manipulated, probably from the very start of it all. But right now, we need to do something about what’s happening here. People are dying, and we need to put a stop to it. Do you know how?”

Exhaling and slipping her clawed hands away from her snout, Sara turned to look at the man and nod, getting up to her feet and causing John to step back as she towered over him.

“First thing we need to do is get you something warm to wear before you freeze out here.” Finally smiling back at the man since this nightmare started, Sara craned her horned head out towards the town. “THEN, we go find the bitch that caused all this from the start.”

“And who’s that?”

A low growl escaped Sara’s throat as she dredged up the name. “Dr. Tina Simmons.”

***

They entered the city an hour ago, the panic screams were like music to their pointed, tilting ears as their kind rampaged through the town. Casually walking down towards the heart of the city, Cal could only smile a fanged grin as he spotted a trio of newly fledged Amalgams barging through the window of a shop, the interior a chorus of screams and roars as he knew all too well what was happening inside. Nearby, he watched the last stand of one of the town’s many police officers try to defend himself before being tackled to the ground and mauled apart by a newborn pack of amalgams who acted out of impulse.

Michelle and Rebecca chuckled to themselves as they watched a pair of amalgams in an alleyway fight over a fresh kill, only for the aggression to turn to one mounting the other, getting tangled in each other as hungry aggression turned to pure rutting. All around them, the town of Golden Maples was in chaos after the flawed serum had been administered en masse at the hospital. In the span of minutes, dozens of the creatures had poured out to attack anything and everything that moved, or threatened them, or just were in the wrong place at the wrong time. And like a swarm of foxes invading a chicken farm, the place very quickly became a charnel house.

“Sniff… Do you smell it?” Purred Tina as she stepped forward ahead of her pack mates, standing on her hind legs with her arms outstretched. “That’s the smell of change.”

“Change for the better.” Smiling, Rebecca pressed up against the dark furred amalgam as the two smiled back at one another, feeling a pair of arms snake around her from behind. Tina felt Cal nuzzle into her neck.

“This town is only the beginning, soon, we will number in the hundreds, and this world will be ours.”

“And all thanks to YOUR brilliant plan to use that human to spread our gifts.”

“Some seem not to be appreciating what we’ve given them, though…”

Looking to where Michelle was nodding, the four noticed a male amalgam hunched on the ground, hugging his knees, and rocking back and forth, his eyes wide and filled with horror as the blood rage and fight or flight had run its course, leaving him lucid to process what he had become and done in the last few minutes. Sneering, Michelle looked at him with contempt.

“Disgusting… Were WE as pathetic as that one when we changed?”

“It doesn’t matter; they are ALL like us now. In time, they’ll see this as a gift, in time, they’ll be just like us.”

Inhaling the scent of blood in the air, Tina separated from Cal’s grasp and fell to all fours, an eager smile on her fanged snout as she looked to the carnage in front of her.

“Come, let’s show them how to be amalgam TRULY!”

Bounding forward in a gallop, Tina could taste the fear and blood in the air. Her eyes were wide and alert as she charged through the streets, thundering forward and smashing a car out of her way with her shoulder with the same ease as shoving aside a pillow. The crash of metal and glass had caused a pedestrian hiding for safety under one of the cars, scrambling to crawl out and run for his life. A mistake he didn’t live long enough to regret, as the last thing he saw looking behind his shoulder was the open jaws of the female amalgam and her claws reaching out for him.

***

Sara winced after she broke the window of a clothes shop across the street from the bridge she and John were hiding under, shaking her hand of the broken glass as she crouched and made her way inside, carefully unlocking the door for the man to walk in without having to climb through broken glass in bare feet.

“Thanks.” He said, keeping his arms folded under him to keep warm as he made his way inside and looked around. “Normally, I’d have you charged for breaking. But considering the circumstances…”

Turning her horned head to look out the broken window of the shop, Sara narrowed her eyes, her nostrils flared as she sniffed the air.

“What’s the matter?” He asked, seeing the spikes over her back rise like the hackles of a startled cat.

“I can… Smell…” Sniffing the air again, the amalgam stared out into the cold, the night as clear as day to her and her altered eyes. But from where she stood, she didn’t see anything. But there was a scent. A scent she recognized somehow. But she couldn’t put her finger on it. “Never mind… Let me know when you are bundled up. We’ll try to stop this.”

Shuffling on a pair of pants his size and a shirt and sweater off a rack, John kept his eye on the woman. It almost reminded him of when he would go hunting with his uncle when he was younger. The man had a hunting dog with him, one that on occasion would pull the same stunt Sara was now. Which usually meant only two things to him. Either she thought there was a squirrel in a tree… Or they weren’t alone. Managing to get a pair of shoes on and throwing a winter coat around himself, John moved up beside Sara, the towering she-creature’s ears were pointed back, and her eyes transfixed outside where the riots and attacks could still be heard in the distance.

“So how are we going to stop them?” Seeing that she didn’t respond, he reached out to tug at her forearm. “Dr. Avant…?”

Immediately, her attention fell on him, her lips peeled back to reveal her sharp fangs as she growled down at the man, **** in her reptilian eyes, before she caught herself and shook her head, almost like she was trying to fight off vertigo. Staggering away a step as she clutched at her horned head with one clawed hand, she used the other to prop herself up against the wall.

“I… I’m sorry.” She breathed, inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly. “It’s like… It’s like I’m trying to hold back a tiger sometimes. The aggression, the hunger… It’s no wonder they all went mad when they turned.”

Looking out onto the night of the town, where it was quite safe for the echoes of turmoil deeper into the city, John hadn’t considered that. The patients at the hospital just… Snapped. The moment they changed, they attacked anything and everything that moved. Looking at it all in hindsight, they had all gone insane. “So… How haven’t you gone… You know… Mad dog like they did?”

Watching her clutch at her chest and immediately looking away, John was starkly reminded that she was completely nude. Even as he looked away, he heard Sara inhale and slowly exhale. Then she finally answered.

“I’ve been taking breathing and yoga exercises since I was in high school… Helps center me, keeps me calm even when I should be freaking out.” Standing to her full height after stepping out into the cold, Sara continued, watching John make a step out into the snow on his own. “After the change, it helped me keep my head straight.”

Looking out onto the street where the rampage was still in full effect, John looked up at the she-creature.

“Do you have a plan?”

“Not yet… But we can’t just leave this place to its own… fate.” Looking out and out towards an alley across the street, Sara’s eyes narrowed, her hackles raised again as she slowly made her way down the street with Officer Clemmens in tow. “Maybe we can drive them out of town or calm them down or something.”

“Provided they’ll do that.”

Bundling up as he quickened his pace, John sighed as he could feel the crunch of snow under his feet. To think that an hour ago, he was doomed to be paraplegic, now he could walk again, his body fully healed. All that hard work and her co-workers ruined what could have been a gift to humanity. Looking up, he saw the 10-foot-tall creature walk cautiously through the street at night, unaffected by the cold and her eyes darting from one thing to the next like a wolf on edge. Lord only knew what she was going through right now. It worried him to no end until he spotted something up ahead.

“What’s that?”

Coming up to a tipped-over van, the driver's side door was lying several feet away with the frozen trail of blood leading off somewhere John didn’t want to look, knowing full well that the driver would not have survived. Reading the side of the van, he saw it read in green lettering ‘Gennex R&D,’ now dented and pitted with claw marks.

“It looks like one of our supply vans; it must have been what Dr. Gregors and Roberts used to bring their serum to the hospital.” Looking down at the trail of blood and how it led off to a pool of it behind a pair of cars, Sara winced, holding back that part of her again that wanted to taste that coppery scent. “I guess when the patients rushed out, the driver panicked.”

“He didn’t get very far… Hey, what’s that in the back?” When he opened the truck from behind, there were Styrofoam boxes labelled with warnings he remembered from back at the hospital. Seeing one broken open, inside were dozens of broken vials, their contents dripping onto the floor of the van. When he reached out for it, Sara stopped him by gently grabbing hold of his hand.

“Don’t.” Nodding towards the vials, John already knew what she was hinting at. “That’s their damaged formula. The one that made everyone out there their own personal nightmare.”

“Right. Don’t touch.” Stepping back from the van, John looked to the core of the town and back at the formula. “If we can get this stuff to the authorities…”

“Better yet, if I can get it back to Gennex, I might be able to…”

The impact came like a cannonball, slamming Sara’s horned skull into the frame of the van with enough **** to crumple the metal like it was made of tin and knocking the amalgam woman out cold. Gripping her head from behind, the clawed hand of a brute of a monster growled out a fanged smile as it turned its attention to John, who stepped back in horror, immediately recognizing the amalgam eyeing the man like a cat to a mouse.

“What a treat, the one who burned me with the little human who snipped at our fur and stole our blood.”

Leaving the **** Sara behind him. Basil chuckled as he brandished his claws, savouring his time as he watched John step back and try to look for anything that could help.

“No hiding places for you to scurry to, little mice, no fire to burn me this time either. It’s just you and me… And when I’m done with you, I’ll show the female what it TRULY means to be an amalgam.”

Backing away, John had nowhere to run to, and the creature was right; he didn’t have anything to fight it off with this time. Even when he did, the monster crippled him easily and left him for dead. Looking over the monster’s shoulder, he could see that Sara was out cold, the blow she had taken had left her limp and prone, her face embedded in the side of the van and showing no sign of waking up.

Looking back up at Basil as he grinned impishly back at the man, John took his chances and darted over to a car behind him, dropping to the ground and rolling under the chassis in the hopes the monster couldn’t reach him. The sound of buckled steel alerted the man to Basil easily lifting the car by its bumper, high enough for the beast to see the prone human.

“Typical mouse, trying to find a hideaway…” shoving the car over with the same ease as flipping over a table, Basil laughed as he watched John scramble to his hands and feet and try to run. “That’s right, run, run, run little mouse. I’ll find you…”

Running for his life, John looked for anything that could help him against the Amalgam toying with him. Still hearing the towering beast behind him, he casually kept up with his pace, for sport. John knew he was playing with him; he was doomed, and the monster knew it. But John still had an edge. Seeing a bistro to his left, he barreled through the window and scrambled to his feet, making his way to the kitchen behind the dining area.

“DON’T THINK YOU CAN CLIMB INTO ANOTHER HIDING SPOT, MOUSE!” Snarled Basil, smashing his way through the window. John jumped into it and dug his way through the chairs and tables in his way, watching John escape through the door leading to the kitchen and lock it. “YOU CAN’T ESCAPE ME!”

Bearing his shoulder into the wall to smash through the divider that separated the dining area from the kitchen, it took Basil three strikes of his powerful body against the brickwork to finally crash through. When he did, the monster looked around to find an empty kitchen, the emergency door clicking shut while a strange smell filled the air. Looking down, the source of the rotten-egg stench was a trio of chrome-coloured ovens with all their burners turned on. His ears perking, he noticed a buzzing noise coming from a microwave oven. One where a pile of metal cutlery was beginning to create sparks after being set to cook for 5 minutes.

“What…”

***

Running as fast as he could after escaping through the emergency exit behind the bistro, John winced and fell to the ground when the explosion finally went off. Dragging himself behind a dumpster, he clutched at his ears as the kitchen finally blew up to high heaven after the gas fire he had planned before escaping went off. Stepping out of his hiding place after fiery debris stopped falling from the sky, Officer Clemmens got up to his feet and looked out over the collapsed building that used to be the bistro. Where once the restaurant he’d frequent for lunches on his shift stood was a fiery, smouldering crater where the brick walls collapsed into itself like a house of cards, belching up black smoke and greenish flames from the gas line still going.

“Who’s the mouse now, you crispy fucker!” He wheezed, delirious with elation as he leaned back against the alley and looked out towards its exit. Shambling his way out and around to the front of the building, which was still burned, John looked out onto the street to find Sara still **** behind the Gennex van.

Passing by the bistro, the explosion had rained burning debris out onto the streets like it did the alley behind it, forcing John to watch where he stepped as he made his way back to her.

“Sara?” Dr. Avanti? Are you okay…”

A howling roar exploded out of the remains of the bistro as the fiery Amalgam clawed his way out and charged toward the man. Enveloped in flame, the beast’s eyes were wild with pain and rage as he came at him like some fiery hellhound. Too fast for John to react, the man cried out when Basil speared his claws deep into the man’s chest, his flesh still blistering in the flames eating away at him as he roared down at the wounded man in his grip.

“NO MORE GAMES FROM LITTLE MOUSE! NO MORE HIDING! NO MORE FIRE!!!!!!” Wrapping his other claw around the man’s head, Basil ignored the flames burning his flesh as he meant to pluck John’s head off like the cork from a bottle. “NOW LITTLE MOUSE DIES!”

The sound of the crunching of bones filled John’s ears, fearing the worst, until the claw embedded in his chest relented and Basil’s grip over his head let go, leaving John to collapse to his feet and fall onto his back, clutching at his injuries and coughing up blood as he rolled onto his side. Looking up from his prone state, he found Sara, just as mindless as the burning monster who tried to kill him with her jaws clamped over his arm.

Looking down at his injuries, he found his breathing improving, his bleeding stemming almost instantly as his wounds rapidly healed until he regained enough of his strength to crawl back to find safety, watching the two beasts fight in front of him. And the horror he was seeing.

Sara was gone; what reason or self-control she had earlier was put to the wayside, replaced with a tiger that roared and slashed at the burning monster in front of her as the two traded blows. But more than that, she looked… Bigger! She was taller than the male amalgam by at least a foot, and certainly stockier in build as she rounded on him with her claws, raking through his flesh as easily as knives through soft yams.

Snapping and snarling, the two tumbled through the street, surrounded by burning wreckage as Sara landed blow after blow into the wounded amalgam. A defiant roar from Basil was met with Sara grabbing hold of his skull with both claws and, with inhuman strength, crushing it. At that moment, Basil’s struggles stopped, his arms falling to the ground and his body still, just as Aara grabbed hold of his shoulder with her jaws and clawed hands and threw him back into the burning building he burst out of, the flames burning higher when his body fell back into the flames.

Getting back to her feet and standing to her full height, Sara’s injuries rapidly healed as she watched her opponent burn. Breathing in, she roared out loud triumphantly.

“Sara?”

Snapping her gaze over to John, still on the ground, her reptilian eyes held no intelligence as she sniffed the air and growled down at the man. Her spined hackles rattled as she fell to all fours and lumbered her way towards him, her lips peeled back to reveal her fangs, bringing herself low as if making ready to pounce and pausing for just a split second before she made to lunge forward.

“Sara!”

Stopping in her tracks, her eyes blinked open, a spark of realization in them at last as he clutched at her horned skull and stood back up to her feet. She shook her head in confusion and was suddenly made aware of the burning building behind her. Looking around, there was a sense she didn’t even know where she was before she looked back down at Officer Clemens, and gasped.

“John!” Falling to all fours again, she moved to reach out to him, confused why he recoiled at first, before he realized she wasn’t going to hurt him and helped the man up to his feet and checked him over after noticing the tears in his jacket. Still looking around, confused, the taller woman scratched at her head. “What happened here?”

“We got jumped by the same damned monster that put me in the hospital, I guess he didn’t like getting a road flare to the face.” Nodding back to the van, John wiped his hand down his chest, finding his wounds fully healed. “Then he came out of nowhere and clocked you out and played around killing me for ****. I blew him up at Jam’s Steakhouse… But that wasn’t enough. How am I still alive?”

“The serum is still in your system; the phage will remain active for 48 hours after injection, and it bonds to your biology. Then it will break down naturally, returning your genetics to normal.” Nudging the man with her finger like a parent scolding a child, Sara scowled down at him. “So don’t get a swollen head thinking you’re indestructible!”

“Well… You proved that to HIM.” John nodded to the flaming remains of the restaurant. Looking up to Dr. Avanti, he had to crane his neck to look up at her. “By the way, how did you get bigger?”

Standing up and padding herself over, Sara looked down and realized she was now much larger than before, almost a foot or so taller. Scratching her horned head, she couldn’t remember the gaps between her memories.

“I… I don’t know what happened. I remember finding the van, then… Now.”

That worried John; had she acted purely out of instinct? Would that happen again? Would he even survive an episode like that? Slowly making his way back to the Gennex van, he found the spot where she had been knocked out cold, the corner of the upturned van dented in the shape of Sara’s horned skull. But there was something else. Dripping out the open door of the van was the serum, forming a pool at his feet after their bottles had been smashed open from the impact. The sound of heavy footsteps behind him alerted him to Sara’s presence as she, too, looked down at where she had awoken.

“You got knocked out here.” John pointed to the damage to the van. “When you came to, you must have come in contact with that stuff. Maybe it made you… Bigger or something.”

Crouching down to pluck a bottle of the serum from the rack that survived, Sara looked to where she was **** and came to the same conclusion.

“The phage retrovirus in these bottles is damaged; it doesn’t expire when it hybridizes with a subject. I learned that when Tina shared her blood with me. Years later, and it is still alive and active in her bloodstream. Being exposed to more here, it must have been like being infected all over again.”

Hearing roars out in the distance, John and Sara are worried. “I guess they heard the gas explosion… We need to get the hell out of here before…”

Gathering as many of the bottles as she could from the van, John could only watch as she found as many as she could, undid the stoppers and opened her mouth.

“Sara! What are you doing?!”

“If biology taught me anything, predators do not attack anything too big for them that they can’t bring down. If I infect myself even more, make myself big enough, none of the turned people will dare try to hurt me or you, and maybe we can steer them out of the city.”

“But what about what happens to YOU?” He cried out, snapping back to look over his shoulder when he spotted a pack of amalgams in the distance coming their way. “You probably only got a few drops of the stuff, and it screwed you up; you weren’t even yourself when you woke up. What do you think is going to happen taking all of that?!”

“It’s better than you and I fighting off a few dozen of those people!” Seeing the Amalgam in the distance, Sara steals herself and pours the bottle down her throat. Dropping the empty thing to her feet, she downed another, and another. By the time she finished the fourth, Sara gasped and fell to the ground in painful convulsions, growling under her breath as she felt her muscles twitch and bones break.

John could only step back as the amalgam woman began to change and grow before his eyes, torn between the approaching pack and the monster he watched being born.

***

City Hall, the epicentre of the town of Gold Maples, the place the population would go in any crisis, was in shambles. Every official had been in a panic once they saw giant monsters storming through the streets and attacking anything that moved, barricading themselves inside and desperately calling in the National Guard. Now? The phone hung idly from its table with the voice on the other end still trying to reach out to the mayor… Who was an unrecognizable bloody smear on the floor? Along with the rest of his former staff, when an amalgam burst through the window of the top floor where they hid.

Outside city hall, Cal, Michelle, Rebecca, and Tina lounged at the steps of the ruined building. The dark-furred woman picked her teeth with the frayed bone of the former mayor after she was done with him. Looking out to the rest of the town before them, Cal smirked.

“Just look at them all.” Cal admired seeing dozens of fledgling amalgams ravaging across the town square in front of them. “THIS is our future.”

“And all thanks to you, Tina.” Chuckling, Rebecca watched as her dark-furred packmate got to her feet and breathed in the carnage and fear all around her.

“Breath it in, my friends, you can actually sense the terror these tiny primates have of us, hiding away like mice behind barricaded doors, soiling themselves, hoping we’ll leave.” Looking over her shoulder, her smile was almost devilish. “The fat sack of meat up there tried to call the national guard.”

“All he’s done is ensure our packs spread unchecked. They can’t harm us… Not permanently.”

“And any effort to try will only trigger our kind to show why we will be the dominant life form of this world.” Purred Michelle, her tail flicking as she got to her feet and looked out to the town before her. “Nothing can stop us!”

Cal made to take a deep breath and call out to his kind still stalking the streets when something cut him off. A deep and guttural roar could be heard off in the distance. One that caused all the other amalgams to stop and turn their attention to its source. Small tremors could be heard as they slowly approached city hall. What came into view was enough to have the amalgams back away and scurry back like frightened animals to the heart of the town as whatever was approaching turned a street corner and came into view.

It was an amalgam… And she was massive!

Well over 50 feet tall, the black-furred monster towered over the shops and homes lining the streets leading to city hall, her footsteps sending small tremors that shook cars and rattled trees still aflame from the human resistance. Her feet stepped heavily yet gracefully, carving grooves into the concrete with her curved claws, her 100-foot-long tail swung heavily behind her, occasionally striking a brick wall, and knocking in the floor of that building as she made her approach. Her clawed hand gripped the corner of a bank with such strength that it crumbled under her grip. Every inch of her was solidly built, so much so that shoving an upturned van out of her way was as easy as kicking aside a cardboard box.

Her head bore two pairs of swooping 12-foot-long horns that crowned her ursine skull, her reptilian eyes almost glowing with barely contained rage as she focused on what lay before her. All the amalgams stared up in awe of this giantess, getting out of her way as she finally stopped at the steps of the hall, glaring down at the four that ruined her life, and focused her attention on Tina, who stood up in stunned silence at the creature she now recognized. Standing imperiously before her with her chest thrust out, cradling a human in her arms close to herself.

“Remember ME bitch?” Growled Sara Avanti, her voice a deep yet feminine rumble that the entire pack could hear, crouched in fear of her presence. “We’ve got some unsettled business to attend to…”

“Avanti?!” Tina gasped, taking a step back.

“THAT’S DR. SARA AVANTI TO YOU! YOU FAT FUCKING GRIZZLY BEAR!” Growled the giant monstress, clutching John closer to herself as her spiny hackles rose in anger. Looking down at John, whom she cradled in her arms, she could feel her worst impulses clawing at her. The animal in her wanted to swallow him whole… She probably could. But keeping herself calm and centred, she gently brought him over to stand on the roof of a nearby building, where he shakenly stumbled to his feet and stepped back. “Stay here, this won’t take long.”

“Give them hell, girl.”

Smirking, Sara turned her horned head towards the four amalgams, a single step forward prompting them to back away nervously. Cal looked to the rest of his new pack and pointed up at the giant creature.

“ATTACK!”

Before the horde could respond, Sara looked to those who made to move and took a deep breath. The roar she gave shook the town to its core. Windows burst, raining down shattered glass that sent the smaller creatures to the ground, clutching their ears or instinctively rearing back in shock. Some even rolled to their backs in a fetal position from the bellow of raw power in front of them. Falling to all fours, Sara’s spines reached high as she glared down at the four alphas of the amalgam pack, the lot standing stunned, looking to their children, and those turned at the hospital alike shivering in fear.

“Predators know better than to start anything bigger than they are…” Growled the giantess with a low voice. “You’d remember that about the animals you used in your experiments.”

“YOU don’t command our pack! WE DO!” Looking at all the frightened amalgams shuddering at the sight of Sara, Cal’s temper took over. “WE DO!”

Charging forward to attack the challenging amalgam giant, Cal, Rebecca, Michelle, and Tina all lunged for what they could. Like a pack of wolves, they attacked, biting and slashing at the creature, their claws and teeth digging deep into Sara’s furry hide as easily as knives into warm butter. But just as quickly as they caused heinous wounds to her arms and flanks, those wounds evaporated as quickly as they were inflicted. Reaching out with a claw, Sara grabbed hold of Rebecca, prying the she-beast off her side and tossing her across the street to fly through the windows of a restaurant. The impact was so severe that the building collapsed like a house of cards, burying her in rubble.

“Animals!”

Grabbing Michelle by the tail, she dragged her off her arm, ignoring the pain as the monster’s claws raked against her flesh. And with her other hand now free, she grappled with the blonde furred monstrosity that flailed and resisted furiously in Sara’s vice-like grip like a feral cat before she threw the offending creature down the street. The she-beast yowling in rage and agony as she was hurled with such **** through an electrical post, she blasted straight through, raining splintered wood chips everywhere before slamming into the wall of a bank, raining wood splinters everywhere and causing electrical fires when the live wires fell slack to the ground. Thousands of volts of electricity fried her. Her fur ignited as she spasmed and fell limp when the current finally burned itself out.

“You’re all nothing but animals!” Snarled Sara, grabbing Cal by the scruff of his back and Tina by the throat, pulling them off her. Cal had gone into a frenzy, trying to slash and snap at Sara like a disobedient pet, while Tina gnawed and clawed at the giant monster-woman’s arm with the same fervour. “You could have reached out for help, could have given yourself over to someone who could have helped you…”

“AAAAAARGH……” Cal roared, wild-eyed with rage as he continued to try and break free, only to be slammed into the ground so hard the gravel cracked at her feet, pounding the lone male into the asphalt over and over, then throwing him into the pillared entrance of City Hall, breaking one of the foundation pillars in half and pinning him down by its weight.

“And YOU…” Sara grit her fanged teeth, staring bloody **** down at the once respected scientist in her grip, now reduced to a thoughtless creature fighting against her inhuman strength. “You ruined my career, ruined my LIFE!” Her eyes became thin slits, matching the murderous gaze of her prey as she breathed in hard, her heart pounding in her ears as drool slipped from her peeled lips. Her grip tightened until Tina stopped resisting and gasped for air.

Opening her mouth wide, Sara leaned forward, almost instinctively aiming to bite the horned bitch’s head clean off. It was all she could see; all she could process in the boil of her blood and the pounding in her ears… Save for the muffled cries of a voice nearby. Pausing, her reptilian eye turned to the worried face of the man she had left on a nearby roof, watching on from his perch as she nearly lost herself to her worst impulses.

Looking down at the amalgam in her grasp, Dr. Avanti slowly reared back, her breathing slowing down as she dropped the **** creature to the ground and staggered back with her claws to her face. Closing her eyes and steadying her breath, Sara regained control of herself, becoming centred once again. Looking at the four leading amalgams, all of them were incapacitated, while the rest of their pack stepped out of hiding and looked up at the massive newcomer in awe.

“That was a close call, glad to see you're still with us.”

Smiling up to John as he looked relieved, she was still in control of herself. The two heard something off in the distance, spotting National Guard trucks and helicopters heading their way. Trading looks again; Sara turned her attention to the amalgams around her. The majority had recently calmed down and were beside themselves in shock and horror.

Looking back to the oncoming brigade and to the confused creatures, Sara gestured for those closest to her to follow her, falling to all fours and running out of town, finding several following her as they escaped reprisal and containment. John, from his spot on the roof, could only watch as Sara disappeared and the National Guard deployed to secure Golden Maples.

***

Five months later…

Sitting at his desk and going over some reports of activity on the edge of town, Lieutenant Clemens leaned back in his seat and pinched the bridge of his nose to rub the soreness out of his eyes. Over on the television hanging at the top corner of the shared office space, there was a newsfeed about Gennex Industries still dealing with legal troubles after what was now dubbed the Gold Maple Nightmare. The CEOs marched out of another court hearing, trying desperately to avoid questions from reporters camped outside the courthouse.

“Fuckers got what they deserved.”

Looking over to a fellow officer limping his way over to his desk. The man had a leg brace that creaked whenever he would lift his leg to walk, dropping another bundle of reports on Clemen’s desk as he looked up at the news report.

“Hey Bob, how’s the leg?”

“Still giving me troubles… There are times I still wake up at night with a sting in my ankle from that night. Sons of bitches are getting off easy. Turned our town into a god damned horror show, and I got mauled by a 5-year-old turned grizzly bear!” He huffed, leaning on his good leg to stand.

“They’ll get off any major crimes,” John explained as he sat up and reached for his drink, finding it cold. “The real perpetrators were the ones who led the attack by exploiting their equipment and resources… And they’re all in animal cages being poked and prodded. Or six feet under…”

“Yeah, heard that, still doesn’t make my leg hurt any less.” The man scoffed as he pulled a chair up and sat heavily on it, a wince of pain in his eyes as he positioned his leg for comfort, then sighed, looking back up at the newsfeed as it showed Gennex representatives getting into their limos and driving away. “At least the money helps.”

That was one of the things Gennex was willing to do after the incident. Even during the court hearings, the company had paid through the nose to compensate for the damages and loss of life from that night, when, after the dust had settled, it was discovered that two of their top researchers had created a sloppy formula that turned dozens of people into maddened monsters. Their bodies were identified at the hospital, which was later determined to be ground zero for the incident. Their research and papers were found back in the labs, showing the work they had done and the corners they had cut.

“There was a news report earlier that you missed. The afflicted are being well cared for; a lot of them are making pretty good emotional recoveries.”

“Good on them, what about the ones that escaped? And what about that BIG one?”

“Yeah…” John knew who he was talking about. When the national guard came in to bring order and sanity back to the town, Sara and a handful of other amalgams had made their escape after dealing with the big bad four that took the town. “Dunno about her, lost track of her when the smoke settled.”

Probably for the best, in his opinion, she would have been subjected to the same treatment as the original amalgams, who were being treated like caged tigers in a facility somewhere, being interrogated and experimented on. She deserved better than that; they all did.

“By the way, have you seen the latest report out in the woods?” Bob asked, pulling a folder from John’s desk, about an incident on the road the other night. An upturned car after an animal hit-and-run. “You think it's them?”

“DOUBT it. Remember the old days? Animals pissing themselves and running out into town for a place to hide? Or people getting attacked?” Going over the report again, it showed damage to a car after it hit something, but the driver was shaken up but unharmed. Claiming she had hit a deer, despite there being no carcass. “Naw, I’m happier with just the boring stuff again.”

Pulling another folder from his desk, he handed it over to Bob, who looked it over and opened it. “What’s this?”

“Remember that burger joint I liked to go to after work? The owner is fighting with the contractor hired to rebuild his place. Seems they keep fighting over what the interior is supposed to be, which leads to some brawling. He’s asking for someone to stand around and keep an eye on things to make sure the old man doesn’t start swinging.”

“Didn’t YOU blow that place up?”

He raised a finger to his mouth to shush the other officer. John gestured for him to head out. “Just go, it’ll give you a chance to sit around and watch paint literally dry and make sure no one’s fighting.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. What about those incidents out of town?”

“I’ll handle them, I’ll investigate them personally. Now go, get out of here. Hopefully, you might get a burger out of it when it's all done.”

Watching the man hobble his way out of the station, John read the reports outside of Golden Maples, his face becoming serious as he went over the papers and interviews gathered. When he was sure the man was gone, John filed the reports citing the presence of an unknown creature as either resolved or inconclusive. One that caught his attention featured a blurry photo of a giant creature hidden behind the trees, spotted by a camper who claimed he had seen an amalgam. Shaking his head, he went back to the file and stamped it as closed, marking the photographs as fakes.

“Come on, Sara, you've got to keep your head down lower than that!”

Getting up from his seat, he grabbed his coat and made his way out of the police station to get to his car, driving out of the lot and heading his way out into the woodlands from the freeway.

***

It was an hour’s drive out to where he had planned to meet, like so many other times he had done this whenever he needed to speak to her. Getting out of the police cruiser in an unmarked path leading out of the freeway, John clutched at a basket in his arm and looked around to make sure no one was driving to see him and stepped into the brush. It took him a few minutes to reach where he was heading.

This path led to an old farmstead that was no longer inhabited. The owner, Henry Doppler, died of old age years ago, and no one paid attention to the property for decades, leaving most of it overgrown as the forest crept in and subsumed the land. He remembered the orchard when he was a kid, having come here when he was five to get oranges from the Doppler farm. Now? It served a better purpose. Kicking his leg free of a branch he got tangled in on the dirt path, he looked up to the dilapidated house and large wooden silo that looked like they had seen better days. But there were new additions to the structures. Particularly, the solar panels lining the house roof and wires leading to the silo, where the air vent on its roof trailed a thin plume of smoke.

“Hello? Dr. Avanti?” John called out with his free hand, making his way up to the porch of the house and finding no activity. Seeing no one inside, he made to head towards the silo when he felt something come at him from behind, moving fast and sounding heavy. Turning around just in time, he was caught off guard as he was tackled to the ground.

“MR. CLEMENS!!!” Chirped a voice hovering over him, the man wheezing for air with two pawed hands pressed down on his chest. Looking up, he found the fanged smile of the young amalgam girl on top of him, her tail wagging back and forth like an exuberant dog to a visitor to her home. “Whatcha bring? Whatcha bring?”

“Hi Kimberly.” Coughed John as he looked over to the basket still in his hand and raised it to catch her attention. “Got you and the others some cookies from the bakery.”

Wringing her clawed hands joyously, the creature got up from the man and plucked his basket off the ground, clutching it close to her clothed chest as she made her way to the back of the property, leaving John to pick himself up off the ground and dust himself off.

“Kids…”

Following the red furred amalgam to the back lot, he found a couple of dozen other amalgams there, each sitting in a circle where, at the center of that circle, in a yoga position, was Sara, her clawed hands clasped together as she turned and bent into a pose, controlling her breathing with a slow exhale, one matched by the others. All of them were wearing what could be considered clothing, at least clothing large enough to fit them. Most were bed sheets, stitched and hemmed, into pants, shirts, and dresses for the lot of them. Even Kimberly wore what could be described as a sundress as she skipped towards the group and cheered that John had arrived.

The start broke whatever mantra Sara had everyone in and caused the group to jump to their feet at the proverbial young girl waving a large cookie over her horned head before biting into it.

“Alright, I guess that’s enough for the morning.” The massive creature sighed as she got up to her feet, towering over everyone as she made her way through them to approach the police officer, who was **** to crane his neck back to look up at her. “Hello, John.”

“Hello, Dr. Avanti.” He smiled, his hands in his pockets as he looked over to the amalgams nibbling away at the cookies from the basket he brought. “Things are going well, huh?”

She wore a robe that might as well have been a couple of car-shelter tents stitched together to cover herself. Even then, it did nothing to hide her curves or her powerful frame. Crouching to one knee to make things better for John, Sara smiled, scratching at her horns.

“They’re showing more control every day. I never thought I’d end up a yoga instructor instead of a research specialist, but… Here we are.” She started with her arms outstretched.

“Some campers caught a blurry photo of you just outside of town,” John stated matter-of-factly. “Anything you wanna share?”

“Dan and Carol wanted to bathe in the river to get cleaned up. Believe me, this furry hide gets itchy sometimes… That and none of them want to be cooped up for too long. I included.”

Slowly nodding and looking back at Sara’s charges, he understood. The desire for some semblance of normalcy, even as 12-foot-tall monsters, shouldn’t be too much to ask for. “Yeah… I just wanted to give you a heads up and see how you were doing. The government has been hunting down amalgams after the incident, and so far, they’re still finding packs of them throughout the state. The last thing I want is them coming back and putting you all in cages like the ones who attacked the town.”

Sitting down and curling her tail around her thigh, Sara huffed at that remark, gripping the bottom hem of her robe. “I’m nothing like them. They let go of who they were because they saw no value in trying to retain their humanity.” Looking down at John, Sara sighed. “I’m trying to get it back. One piece at a time.”

Crossing his arms, John continued to eye the tall she-creature until she slumped her shoulders.

“Alright, I’ll try to keep a tighter rein on things, but only ONE condition.”

“Name it.”

“Get a damned TV in here. Kimberly and Billy are getting tired of board games, and our hands aren’t built to pick up tiny things.”

Looking over to the two ‘children’ of the group, they were both part of the initial test at the hospital when they were turned. The idea of them being picked up and treated like dangerous animals didn’t sit well with either of them, which is why Sara gathered who she could and fled when the authorities arrived. Both were sitting together, nibbling on their cookies. No memories of the trauma of that night, and probably for the best.

“Yeah, I’ll see what I can do. AND get you some more lab equipment for you to find a cure.”

Leaning down, Sara surprised the man with a kiss on his forehead. “Thank you.”

Getting back up to her feet, Sara joined the others who chatted in the shade of a tree, leaving John to turn and head back to his police cruiser and plan to head back into town. “Wonder if those freaks are living it up with some TV in their cement cells.” He wondered, scratching his head as he made his way back down the dirt path.

***

Somewhere at a military containment facility…

“WHEN DID IT HAPPEN?” Called out an armed guard, a small platoon of guards following him as another with a pad in hand chased down the hallway.

“The caretakers were checking on the subject’s anesthesia for another sample collection when it woke up and killed everyone in the damned lab, then it stole a key card and broke out into the complex.” Barked out a guard to his left, checking on security footage of an amalgam breaking out of his bindings and attacking medical staff.

“Where is it now?”

“Unknown, sir.” Huffed the guard as the squad turned a corner cautiously and marched towards the R&D wing of the complex. “The last use of the key card was… THERE! Containment wing A, B, C…”

“It’s letting all the fuckers out, safeties off men.”

Heading to the wing where the amalgams were all contained and kept sedated, the quick swipe of a key card near a heavily fortified metal door’s card reader beeped with a green light and slid open with a dull metallic groan. By the time the doors were halfway open, the dozen or so armed guards swarmed in and took positions, stopping in their tracks when they found the cell block empty, its doors all open, and a red streak leading to the end of the hall, where a gaping hole in the stone wall yawned.

Lowering their weapons, the men could only look out into the open night air with trepidation.

“Oh god! They got out…”

The end?