Making a choice

Blinking her tired eyes back into awareness, Dr. Avanti mewled as a penlight flashed into her field of vision. Squinting at the sharp light, she opened her eyes again. The light switched between her left and right eyes, checking for a concussion. Everything seemed so muggy, blurred as things came back into focus; the smell of the morning fog rolling in, the rustling of leaves in the forest canopy as a slight wind blew by, all while red and blue flashes of light shone from the background behind a shape trying to talk to her. The muffled voice mesmerized her before she was shaken back awake as the voice gained clarity.

“Madam? Are you alright? Can you hear me? Can you remember your name and where you are?” asked in a soothing voice, trying to rouse her out of her fugue state.

fluttering her eyes open, she was being checked over by a man in a police officer's vest, the penlight being shone into her eyes by a paramedic as the man asked her questions in a slow tone of voice, his words becoming clearer as she fully awoke.

"I asked, Can you remember your name? Do you know where you are?"

Looking around her, she had a blanket over her shoulders, sitting at the back of an ambulance on the curb of the road while a police cruiser was parked nearby with road flares marking the crash site of her car. Looking out of the cab of the ambulance, she looked down at herself and sighed as her clothes were filthy from lying in the gravel and mud outside for who knows how long.

"My name is... Dr. Sara Avanti, I... I work at the Gennex research laboratory, it's a half-hour drive up the road over… Uhm… Over…." She tried to point up the road, hesitating as she no longer had her bearings about her.

“That’s okay, take your time. You were still **** when a driver came out here and found you on the ground.” Scribbling notes into a small notepad in his hands, the officer nodded before looking her in the eyes again to make sure she wasn't still dazed. "Do you remember what happened to you? Any details of how you ended up out here with your car wrecked?"

Rubbing her head, the woman groaned as the night's events came screaming back to her, her head feeling heavy as she remembered the monster she hit with her car... The fear she felt when it got up from its injuries and pried her from her car, rage burning in its eyes as it bared its teeth at her. And the proposal it offered for sparing her life.

"Uhm... The road was foggy... I thought I saw a deer and swerved out of the way... Hit a tree... I think." Nodding again, the officer scribbled the last bit of her responses down and pocketed her notepad.

"Well, from what I've checked, the paramedics said you don't have a head injury despite how nasty your crash was. From what we can tell, your story matches our findings. We even found the remains of the deer you hit, a few feet away from the impact point, picked clean by the local predators."

Turning to point at the bony carcass at the curb, he looked back at the woman with some confusion.

"It's kind of strange that they would tear at it but leave you totally untouched... But then again, these woods have been pretty weird the last few years."

"Weird? What do you mean?" She asked, a little confused.

Looking at her with an odd look on his face, the officer smirked somewhat before pulling his cap off to scratch at his black hair.

"I guess you haven't been living here long if you haven't heard any of the stories we've been getting out here." Pointing over to the forests opposite town, he continued. "About a couple of years ago, we had a wave of animals fleeing the woods and wandering into town. Wolves, bears, even a damn mountain lion. We caught them, of course, tagged them and sent them free outside of town, but after that, shit got REALLY weird!"

Nodding back to the paramedic, who put away his equipment into a satchel and placed it in the back of the ambulance. The officer continued.

"We started getting reports from hikers, hunters and the occasional stupid pair of teenagers that claimed they saw strange creatures out there in the woods, something scary enough that it would make a bear shit itself and run the other way... And after darting a 1200-pound grizzly running for its life downtown a couple of years back, I started to believe them. That and there were the disappearances out here, we even lost a couple of officers that went out here looking for them..."

Sara slowly stood up on shaky legs and pulled herself out of the ambulance cab and out onto the gravel outside. The paramedic, looking her over, said she was alright and didn’t need to go to the hospital. Looking around her, she could hear the chirps of morning birds off in the distance and felt the chill in the air as she gathered her bearings. Walking over to her car, she looked at where the driver 's-side door had been pried from its hinges; the door itself lay folded and crushed like a soda can on the other side of the road. Seeing that sight made her clutch at her blanket more tightly as she walked over to the officer finishing up with his investigation, the man talking with the ambulance driver and staff before they were ready to leave.

"If it is alright with you, officer, could I ask for a ride back into town?

Slapping his hand against the side of the paramedic’s shoulder as the crew closed the back doors and drove off, he nodded to the good doctor and helped her to the passenger side of his police cruiser. Opening the door for her to step in.

"Thank you... I'm going to have to inform the station about what happened here, too." The officer took his seat, turned the ignition after closing his door, nodded again, and offered a bottle of water from his dashboard.

“Thank you.” Opening the bottle to take a sip, the woman smiled and nodded back to the officer. “You’re very kind.”

"I'm more than willing to help, ma'am. By the way, my name is Officer Clemens, John Clemens."

***

With the sun high overhead in the midday sky, the forests had changed since last night; the summer heat was giving way to autumn weather, with cold nights and rainy mornings. The fog that had rolled in was nowhere to be seen, yet a layer of gold and reddened leaves fell gracefully from the branches above to drop and form a thin layer on the grass-covered earth below. Animals were gathering food and twigs to prepare for the coming winter, many of which were on the forest floor at that very moment, digging up loose soil to bury nuts for later. Birds continued to call out and sing on the clear day, finishing up the little loose ends before they either fattened up for the cold to come or migrated to warmer climates far away.

The Amalgam's den was quiet except for the soft snoring of more than a dozen cubs fast asleep at the back of the cave. Out in the woods on the outskirts of the open fields and farmlands, the rest of the pack went hunting. Now that deer season had ended with most of the herds leaving the area, the pack had to make alternatives to what was on the menu. Over the last two years, the four former scientists had gotten used to hunting in the woods, either as a pack or alone.

"So, you just... Let her live? My goodness, Tina, you're getting soft, I mean, she hit you with her car!"

Laughed the blonde amalgam as the four crouched low to hide in the tall grass outside a cattle farm they knew, the cows grazing off the tall grass they all occupied, oblivious to the four predators in hiding.

"Fuck off, Michelle. Even you can see the potential in this plan of mine; she MIGHT even be able to pull it off." Staying low and still so as not to be seen, they eyed the cattle nearby, focusing on one that looked aged and slow. The poor thing staggered over to an empty spot in the field to rest its tired legs.

"So old... So weak... So easy." Moving away from the others, Rebecca prowled low, approaching the exhausted animal from a distance so as not to give away her scent on the wind. Before the bovine knew what hit it, a rush of fur and muscle lunged out and pinned it to the ground, its mood of panic cut short as Rebecca clamped her jaws over the heifer's shoulder and cleaved its neck wide open with her claws, killing it instantly. Snapping her head back to look at the rest of the herd, she watched as they all looked up to stare in fear at what had taken down one of their elders. Even crouched and standing on all fours, she was taller than they were. Her horns were over a meter long and looming back like an antelope behind her head to meet the foot-long spines that jutted from her back down to the base of her tail. The claws she brandished on her hands and feet were jet black and razor sharp like a bear or lion, the 15-foot-long tail behind her swinging back and forth like a monitor lizard as she stared down the many cows in front of her with the piercing gaze of her yellow slit eyes. Moving off in fear of the red-furred amalgam, the herd kept their distance as Rebecca lifted the half-ton animal under her arm and stomped back to the others.

"I agree with Tina on this one." Quipped Cal as Rebecca rubbed against him on their way back into the forest edge with their prize. "If we play this carefully and patiently, we can actually make this happen, I say we follow through with her plan."

Stopping as the dark-furred female pressed against him over a tree, Cal smiled down at Tina while she nuzzled into his chest and neck.

"Thanks for the support and love... Someone's going to have a long night tonight."

With her many breasts mashed up against his chest, she moved her arms to wrap around Cal's muscular back, nipping and kissing up his neck and chin. Her broad and powerful tail swished and wagged slowly behind her like a cat’s tail as Cal's claws felt up her wide hips and rear. Moving on ahead, Rebecca and Michelle rolled their eyes as their pack mates went at it shamelessly behind them.

"Now that I think of it, maybe this is something to let the OTHERS know about. After all, the other packs deserve to know what's going on."

"Ooh, to see my kids again all grown up... I wonder if they've made a grandmother out of me yet."

"Come on, Michelle, let's get moving. I'm STARVING, and the faster we eat this thing, the better!"

Getting a better grip on the sagging carcass in her claws, the two walked on as Cal and Tina grew more passionate, their howls making the two beast-women giggle as they heard Cal giving their friend an early taste of what the dark-furred female wanted that night.

***

Sometime later, after a few phone calls and a much-deserved hot shower, Sara informed her employers of the accident and was given the day off to relax and settle her damages. Sitting on the floor in a pair of yoga pants and a blouse, the woman had her hands together, eyes closed, breathing slowly and twisting her body into a pose before exhaling. She had taken up yoga while still in medical school, finding it helped her center and gave her a sense of calm, especially during the cramming sessions for her final exams.

Her mind still reeled over what happened last night. Changing her stance, she breathed in again and leaned back with her leg up behind her as she faced the ceiling. Leaning her head back, she looked up at the ceiling of her apartment living room, her eyes focusing on the ceiling fan as it spun slowly overhead.

Sighing… She found she couldn't feel relaxed.

Sitting up and combing her delicate fingers through her silky black hair, Sara then looked around her apartment. She hadn't been in the town of Gold Maples for too long; she moved here at the request to finish the cell-regen project less than a few months ago. Even after being here for that time, she still felt out of place; granted, the decor didn't help. The apartment had the same bland, homogeneous appearance as a drive-in hotel room. The furniture was all made of the same obvious, cheap brand, but stylish enough not to look tacky. Every room was painted the same eggshell white, and even the upholstery and bedding had the same colours. It was all premade for her and the other scientists' convenience. There was no telling how long their research would take, so this was the most agreeable and affordable way to live.

Closing her eyes, she recollected that moment that was seared into her memory, that moment in the dead of night where she was cold and helpless as a creature far more terrifying than she could ever imagine stood over her, a creature that revealed itself to be the late Dr. Simmons, offering her a chance to complete her work.

"Should I do it?"

She wasn't stupid after all; she could put two and two together. The fleeing animals, the disappearances in the woods, it was all because of Dr. Simmons and what she had become. Questions started running through Sara's mind over the whole thing; did she kill those people? Would Dr. Simmons kill her if she didn't show up? Would she kill her if she DID show up?! Thinking about it sent a chill down her spine and made her legs numb and shaky, prompting her to pull her feet up to rest on the couch. She could only worry about what was in store, whether she made the decision or not. And what if she told someone what she found last night? They'd think she was a lunatic, ranting on about a giant yeti monster that so happened to be a scientist from the nearby lab. Her story would end up on the local tabloid, and she'd be a laughingstock amongst the scientific community... Right up to when they'd toss her in the loony bin.

Sighing out a breath she was holding the whole time, she looked over to the clock on the side table of her couch, it was Thursday, which meant she still had another day to make up her mind. Regaining the nerve to move, Sara sat up and went to her kitchen to make some rice and chicken for lunch.

***

Dr. Avanti's return to work was met with mild concern from fellow staff and co-workers as she stepped past the glass sliding doors of the Gennex installation entrance and made her way to the third floor to her shared workspace and lab. Pulling on her lab coat, she stepped into the vacuum-sealed environment and used her ID badge to open the lab doors, then moved to her workbench and reviewed the next project she had been working on since Monday. She wasn't alone; at separate corners of the large room sat two other scientists, hard at work on their own segments of the project, as Dr. Avanti prepped her first test of the day.

"So, I heard you had a nasty traffic accident a few days back, Sara." Called out one of the men in the lab, his stool turned to face her as he spoke.

"Yeah, I heard your car got wrecked and everything, shame really..." Raising her head to look back at her co-workers, Sara frowned and went back to her microscope, a slide already prepped and placed under the lens to observe. Even though they sounded concerned, the smirks on their faces told her otherwise. Dr. Roberts and Dr. Gregor were assigned to work with her on the cell-regen project after it was given the green light to reopen. However, she saw it as an opportunity to conduct legitimate medical research; her colleagues had more selfish motives.

Dr. Edwin Gregor was a man in his mid-forties from Gennex's British research branch. His chocolate brown hair was well-groomed, along with the trimmed mustache he occasionally scratched when he was deep in thought. Edwin was pulled into the job because he volunteered as soon as it was announced, eager to join the team in finishing where Dr. Strentum and the others began. The introductions were formal and polite, but after a week, it became apparent what his intentions were. Fame! If they DID develop a successful formula for the cellular regeneration project, he would become as famous as John Enders or Alexander Fleming. Talk shows, autobiographical novels and if he were lucky, maybe even a Nobel Peace Prize if he managed to get the serum to work, which meant he was more than willing to look over another researcher's shoulder to get ahead and grab at that fame if it were within reach. A couple of researchers who worked with him learned that humble lesson years ago.

"So, what was it, Sara? You forgot to turn your high beams back on? Or are you not used to American deer frolicking up in front of your car?"

Dr. Dave Roberts was a transferee from Texas, and from the subtle quips and offhand remarks, it was obvious he was a racist, too. "Ah, come on, Sara, don't be all glum, it's not like it was a cow that wandered in front of your car now, was it?"

Twitching her eyebrow in frustration, Dr. Avanti bit her lip to keep her cool. She had mentioned several times to her higher-ups about the tall blonde southerner and how he would mock her Indian heritage. Still, like the snake he was, all he needed was a minute to use that silver forked tongue of his to argue his way out of being booted off the project. Tall and lanky by appearance, he had a thick country accent that was both loud and boisterous whenever he spoke. As for his quality of research, he was good at what he did and had been responsible for a few medical breakthroughs with the Phage over the years, but even so, she couldn't stand him. She wondered to herself if she should step out of the program to keep her wits about her, but the promise of any kind of discovery was too much to ignore or walk away from.

So far, all they have done as a team is try to pick up where the previous scientists left off before the explosion; their last report was embarrassing, to say the least. All three thought they could do the job better than Dr. Strentum's team, but after three weeks of reviewing the research, they, too, produced failures.

Even now, she was trying to redo one of Dr. Hilbert's last experiments, trying to bond an ursine DNA code to a human strand to see if they could match up. The portion of bear genes involved with blood clotting was one of the late doctor's attempts at possible trauma recovery after injury. Focusing the lenses of her microscope, she kept her fingers crossed as the Phage connected the two altered genetics.

"Almost... Almost..." Just as the two strands began to bond, it seemed there was promise, until the scanner running alongside her microscope tuned in and printed a report stating that the added genes were treated as recessive and all but ignored in the DNA chain. Leaning back in her chair and rubbing her eyes, the woman groaned in frustration. "How... How did it work on you? You took a hit from a sedan and got up like it was a soccer match. What am I missing?"

"You know, Dr. Avanti, talking to yourself is the first sign of developing dementia. If you don't want your colleagues believing you’re going nuts in here, maybe you should share your work and get some help."

Frowning, Sara looked straight forward at Dr. Gregor and glowered at his chuckling face, the man turning around and going back to his notes as he kept track of his own research.

"You know they got a country cure for that back in my state, a few shots of whiskey and an hour later people start to understand what you’re bullshitting about." Breaking into laughter, he continued. "Because then you wouldn't be crazy, you'd just be drunk! Ha hahaha..."

As both men began to laugh at her expense, Sara's frown grew darker. She could no longer tolerate her work conditions, nor could she expect anything good to come of sharing her work with either of them, even if she did succeed where the others failed. It was at that moment she made her decision...

***

By the time Saturday dawned, Sara dressed for the chill weather and prepared herself. Wearing a pair of blue denim pants and a sweater, along with a pair of heavy boots, just in case she walked off the road. Putting her heavy coat on, she looked out her balcony window to the view of the forests between the town and the lab, the thin strip of road she would have to take was practically invisible among the miles of tree cover, a blanket of oranges, reds and yellows that looked beautiful from the view, but Sara knew that this was just a lovely distraction from what was REALLY in those forests. She locked her apartment door and walked down the hall to the elevator, and down to the parking lot under the building. Stepping out into the autumn cold, she made the short trip over to her parking spot and opened the door to her rental car. Clicking the safety belt over her trim waist and putting her keys into the ignition, she held her breath and closed her eyes.

"You can do this, Sara, it's now or never." With the thrum of the engine revving, she turned her head back and pulled out of her parking space, her small two-seater darting out of the building park lane and out into the heavy traffic.

Since it was the weekend, the streets were bustling with people and families going to the local shops, restaurants, and parks to enjoy the morning. Stuck in traffic between intersections, she looked at the clock on her dashboard, the thing reading 10:49 am through a crude digital display like some old alarm clock. "Shit!... Got to hurry." Being a bit aggressive to make up time, she drove her way through the streets to get out of town, receiving some angry catcalls from the drivers she cut off. It took her at least half an hour to make it to the freeway and out of Golden Maples, the traffic thinning out as she hit the open road and headed down the route that led to work.

Driving the open road for the better part of 15 minutes, she tried to remember the spot Dr. Simmons had told her to meet at, sweat forming on her brow as nothing seemed familiar to her in the daytime, as it had at night. Looking back at her dashboard clock, her worries grew as the timer read 11:35 am; she was running out of time and growing scared. It wasn't until she caught a glimmer at her left that she slowed down and caught sight of something familiar off the curb. Her car door, the one from her old sedan, sat upside down off to the side of the road, neglected. It must have been ignored after her car was towed that day. Feeling relief and smirking at the dumb luck of it all, she parked her car to the side and stepped out, locking her doors as she took one last look at her clock and sighed.

11:49 am.

She stood there, alone, out in the open two-lane road that branched off from the freeway. At either side, there was nothing but trees and bushes that were already turning colour and dropping their leaves on the ground in calm, slow drops like multi-colored snowflakes. The sky was clear, and reaching noon, the sun was high enough that she had her coat open to enjoy the brief warmth it offered. Looking down the road, there wasn't anyone driving in either lane, almost as if the exits were blocked just out of view. In truth, it wasn't a very popular road to travel, especially over the last couple of years, from what she had been told. Animal crossings and attacks were common out here, not to mention there was a freeway intersection just half a mile up that was much safer.

Breathing in through her nose and slowly exhaling to keep herself calm, she waited outside the driver's side of her door, watching as the leaves fell from the tree branches in front of her. Growing up in India, she was reminded of when the banyan trees would turn in autumn, their massive branches looming wide from the strangled, webbed trunks of other trees they latched onto, while figs grew ripe and hung low from the branches. Counting in her head the leaves that fell gracefully in front of her, Sara waited, snapping her head back into the car to check the time.

"Twelve oh five, where are you?"

Holding herself close, she knew it was only a matter of minutes before the afflicted doctor would meet her. Then she heard it—a strange rustling in the trees on the opposite side of the road behind her. Stepping out of her vehicle and walking around her car to step closer to the forest edge, she heard it again, the sounds of crushed leaves under something walking, something coming her way.

"Hello? Dr. Simmons? Is that you?" She called out. “I’m here like you asked me to be.”

Hearing the sounds get louder, the rustling became visible, the branches of the bushes moving ahead of her as something approached. Stepping back and steeling herself as the body of motion in the bushes moved closer and closer, she was prepared for anything… Until a raccoon darted out into the open in front of her. Chittering to itself as it sat and perched itself at the edge of the road, and wiped its paws over its nose.

Looking down at the young raccoon as it looked up to make eye contact with the woman, Sara let out a breath she had been holding the entire time. She chuckled to herself, bringing a hand to her mouth to keep from laughing out loud and wrapping her arms around her sides, slowly sliding down to the gravel and laughing herself silly. The raccoon, however, ignored her as it scratched at the leaf-matted ground for something to eat, digging up the soil in hopes of finding any fruit or nuts the squirrels hadn't run off with yet.

"You gave me a heart attack, you little bandit!" She giggled as the little furry thing looked up at her in mild interest before darting back into the bushes and disappearing. "Maybe this WAS all in my head... I was exhausted that night, who knows what was going on in my head after I hit that deer."

Pulling herself up, she went back to open her car door and leave, but paused on her first step inside her vehicle and noticed the forest had suddenly gone dead quiet. No birds, no motion, it was as if time stopped for that one moment. Then she heard something new, a deep rumbling growl that seemed to come from everywhere at once. Her breath hitched in her throat as she slowly turned and closed her car door, looking out into the woods to see the source of the noise; all she found was empty forest.

"H-hello?"

Taking slow steps, she walked closer to the tree line in front of her, the same silence making her uneasy. A crunch of branches overhead made Sara look up and gasp at whatever had decided to reveal itself. Crawling its way down from the trees like some reptile, she watched as the Amalgam dropped down to the ground with a heavy fall, raised itself to its full height and approached her. Taking a step back, Dr. Avanti's eyes were wide open, drinking in the sight of the monster as it stood and looked down at her.

"Dr. Simmons?"

"Grrrrrrr...."

Monstrous! That was the only word her terrified mind could produce to describe the creature in front of her. Well over 12 feet tall, it was solid with muscle, bulky in some areas like the stomach and thighs, but overall, she did not doubt that, if it wanted to, this thing could lift her car aside like a garbage bin. But something was wrong! Something was different. The creature she met nights ago was jet black; this creature was dark brown, its horns arched forward like those of some bull or bison. Brandishing its claws and baring fanged teeth that were as long as Sara's fingers, the monster Amalgam growled at her again, the baritone of its snarl reverberating through her slight frame as she leaned back and pressed up against her car, just like that horrible night.

"You.. You're not Dr. Simmons!"