AnotherArchetype

114. Dust

The distant sound of approaching vehicles caused my ears to prick. 

"Vehicles are coming," I said, clenching the fingers on my newly regrown right hand, "We've got to go." 

It wasn't just one vehicle, but several. One of the vehicles in particular sounded very heavy, its huge metallic wheels rolling hard on the graveled earth.

Please be the construction site workers, I thought, please not the Peepers. 

Azad made an effort to get up on h...

113. Azad

Eyes closed and heavy, the most I was able to do upon waking was remembering all of the chaos of what happened. Reaching the bunker. Being set upon by the Pied Piper officers. Xandra and I splitting up to divide their numbers.

Crashing headfirst through a jeep window. Breaking my wrist. Learning what it feels like to have broken glass stuck in my face. Healing those wounds, bringing about mental fatigue that I would pay for later.  

Reaching the abandoned factories. Figh...

112. Sweating Blood

Flames erupted in the corridor just as Azad, carrying me on his back and Xandra in his arms, bounded along it. Fresh searing pain. The shredded remains of my shirt along my back had been set on fire. 

I continued to hold onto Azad as tight as my nubbed arms would let me. Enough strength had returned to me to do that much. The flames continued to burn. I had no will left in me to do anything other than hold on and wish for the burning to stop. 

A Pied Piper Task Force off...

111. Just Burgess

Azad had loomed over me, yelling at me to change back to my human form. His skin had the same bright pink sunburnt hue to it, and his huge swollen muscles bulged, and steam continued to rise off his frame. My eyes forced themselves shut. When I opened them again Azad had gone.

How long had I closed my eyes for? One second? Five minutes?

The corridor seemed all the more dark given my eyes had ceased being heightened. The abandoned torchlight attachments to the Pied Piper officer's ...

110. Tension! Times Three!

Please don't let me down. 

This was the thought which rang clear in my mind as the beast I had become descended upon Azad. 

He nimbly dodged more of my swipes, backtracking with seemingly gravity defying leaps as if knowing exactly how to avoid the numerous slippery obstacles layering the ground. 

I had truly lost control. There wasn't a single bit of me that was going to go easy on him. What hope I had that I might be able to restrain myself was quic...

109. The Beast In Me

The officers wavered in the wake of Azad's declaration for the officers to drop their weapons

Then an officer, no older than twenty, who looked and sounded Mexican-American, began to speak up. 

"I am a Pied Piper officer!" he yelled, "I am a protector of the peace, I shall not fear nor flee from might nor malice, I AM A PIED PIPER OFFICER!" 

The other Pied Piper officers listened to their comrade, they raised their rifles and renewed their resolve. Together they ye...

108 - The World's Greatest Hero

The sound of explosions and gunfire from somewhere within the factory I was already in told me the onslaught which had made Xandra desperate enough to cry out for help hadn't relented. 

I reached the bottom of the stairs, feeling the flames lick at my furred and leathery skin, as well as my partially shredded clothing. 

My feet in particular felt the aftermath of walking on the hot steps, but the new leathery-ness of my soles and, after a brief moment of inspiration, eve...

107 - Dragon Fire

No sooner had I bounded my way to the end of the next corridor, with a large set of black double doors rapidly growing larger on my approach, did the double-doors burst open with explosive force. 

Splintered bits of debris from the broken door added to the cuts already on my face. I turned hard on my heels, veering right. 

There were just two possible routes available to me; another long corridor or, beyond the foyer desk to my right, a short flight of winding stairs.&nb...

106. Smarter, Not Harder

The Pied Piper Task Force jeep I had crawled out from exploded, lighting up the early morning sky with a great orange plume. 

Three more dead, I thought, as I ran. 

The driver, the passenger, and the gunner on the back. 

I knew that if I somehow survived this ordeal I would want to remember every Pied Piper Task Force officer who had died trying to kill me. 

But beyond acknowledging each death I had no mental bandwidth to spar...

Backstory Chapters, or Keep Pushing Ahead?

For this Patreon I am considering adding backstory chapters for characters like Tiffany, Blain, Robert Hoffman, Xandra, and more. They're outside Burgess's point of view and would work as self-contained short stories, and would be exclusive to the Patreon.

Or, dear readers, would you prefer to stick with Burgess's point of view and keep pushing on with the story?

Have your say in the poll below:

105 - No Easy Way Out

Using my enlarged thigh muscles, I shot out of the bunker with as much force as I could muster.

The flashes of gunfire, not darts, but real gunfire, lit up the forest like a strobe light. I was glad my ears weren't heightened to the nth degree because the sound of the gunfire even at a regular volume was awful. 

The trees whipping by me on my way upwards were torn to shreds by the bullets. 

The gunfire wasn't stopping, and I didn't have the luxury of float...

Chapter 104 - The Bunker

Although it was still night and several hours until dawn, the sound of the insects was a constant zipping to our ears, and was so annoying we were forced to reduce our heightened hearing to a normal level. We searched the barren soil around us for where the insects might be hiding, but couldn't spot them. We had continued on in our coiled up states, using our new elastic springiness to add even more speed and power behind our bounding movements. 

It had been twenty minutes...

Chapter 103 - Elastic

We had taken some time to eat the last of the chocolate bars Xandra had stolen from the Putsley Bay petrol station. She threw her wrapper off the edge, watching it flip and twirl on its way down to the concrete far below. I pocketed mine. 

"Let's go fast," said Xandra, being the first to move away from the verge and back to relative safety. 

"Sure," I said. 

"I tried making myself taller to give myself more strength to maneuver," she said, "But I would need to...

Chapter 102 - Dump Heap

There was little more than barren earth on either side of the road. Somewhat to my relief, though I could see in the dark perfectly fine, Xandra and I didn't have to walk in darkness thanks to the bright streetlights which lit the huge main road for miles ahead and behind. 

Xandra had stopped trying to stay a step ahead of me because we both knew the direction we were going. Instead we walked side by side keeping a brisk pace. 

An incredible sadness had taken hold of me ...

Chapter 101 - Surrounded

It became quickly apparent to me that Xandra was not satisfied with just coiling up and running at close to a sprinting pace, even after she had said she wanted us to push ourselves more than usual. After the first half hour of running across farmland, roads, and forests (always being careful to avoid getting too close to any of the residential areas and using our powers to stay a step-ahead of any people about, of which there were quite a few), Xandra picked up her speed even more. 

The Patreon Begins

Going to keep this Patreon nice and simple for fans looking to read more of the series.

By becoming a member you'll stay 5 chapters ahead of what is released for free online.