Four weeks spent in the woods. It was demarcated by the tally on the wall of her den . That word, den ; that wasn’t normally how Humans described their dwelling, was it? House, home, base, camp, shelter. But not den . That word was for animals. Yet, Talon enjoyed the word. It suited her dwelling. The furs she’d harvested, the electronic lights she’d salvaged from the crashed shuttlecraft, the bed roll, and, of course, her prized shark; it sat in the corner Talon had decided was her sleeping corner. It was a stand in for her missing mate .

  The smell of rot had grown increasingly pungent. Talon felt a certain enjoyment at watching the pile of decaying flesh grow. It was her sign of progress. Yet what she was progressing towards she wasn’t sure, she only knew it was still distant. The animals were weak, small; prey . She roused from her shelter as she emerged into the morning sun. It reminded her of something; youth, growing up, her wife, Derrick, her mother, her father, her life, who she was; Talon Kileandar

  “Fuck!” Talon jumped at her own thoughts; they were wrong again. The horrid sense of something greater looking upon her grazed her mind. It asked her who she was. It asked what she was doing, and what she had done to herself to draw such “seperation.” Talon rejected it; she was alone out there in the forest. She looked around the campsite, the large, burnt out bonfire, the small dam built of stones, mud, and the log Tallon had dragged half a mile.

  Talon's eyes befell the pile of rotting flesh. It started as a pit she’d dug from the soil, yet it rapidly filled with the discarded carcasses of her kills, stripped of their muscle, fat, and some of the organs. Talon cramped. It wasn’t so bad this time, it had become a part of her regular activity to release whatever spawn she grew. From the low level intensity of the cramps, Talon knew she wasn’t “due” for another couple of hours, at least. It occurred every eight or so days, normally in the morning, or, after her increasingly common afternoon naps.

  Talon looked at, but didn’t truly see the pile of flesh and bone that she’d created. She didn’t want to, truely. There was something about it that was wrong. Something Aberrant in it. But she denied what was frank reality. She denied it because it challenged her very humanity. It was, in effect, her enemy. One she created, one she added to, one she was responsible for. Alas, her responsibility was growling in her stomach.

  Talon sighed as she fully stood from the makeshift doorway. This was the fifth time since Derrick left that she forgot herself in some Aberrant induced stupor. Talon shivered at the thought of it; of becoming truly Aberrant; losing her higher cognition, becoming something animal. She felt the urge while she ate, while she hunted, while she relaxed, while she slept. It pulled at her constantly, demanding her mind. What scared her was that it was her , or at least, it felt like her. No longer did the urges even feel external to herself. It felt amazing when she gave into them, acted without thinking, purely on her mildly violent instincts. Talon felt came to an awful potential; was this how some humans operated too? Rarely thinking, acting merely on their instinctual woes? Or were humans above it? She couldn’t deny it, not thinking felt very nice, organismic even.

  Talon started her morning routine, totally nude, as had become normal for her. Her clothes, despite fitting in the loosest possible definition of the word, were dirtied by days on end of life in the wilderness, and without soap, nearly impossible to properly clean. Her skin though, was easy enough to clean with just water, even if it left her rather smelly, she could deal with the consequences of such when the time came.

  None was the matter though, Talon enjoyed the summer air on her nude form. It felt oddly freeing. She couldn’t tell if she was merely a nudist the whole time, or if the Aberration had warped her perception of nudity. She always was insecure in her body, but also she loved flaunting it. Talon didn’t care enough to truly think back on it much more, she had more important things to deal with; namely her hunger. Yet something else in Talon stirred. She got the odd sense in her gut that today wouldn’t be a good one. She didn’t know why, or how, but something in the back of her mind echoed to her that she needed to prepare for an unknowable situation. She’d gotten such murmurs in her mind since youth, yet she’d always written them off, even when the premonitions of catastrophe came true.

  Talon started through the forest to a landmark she’d been using for the past several weeks. She thought of Derrick as she walked through the forest. She missed him, dearly. Derrick had left two weeks earlier, and was yet to come back. He had gone for the town down the river, he said he’d return with goods, but he hadn’t yet. Talon was afraid he never would. Maybe he’d run away. Maybe he had even ratted Talon out and people were coming. It wasn’t that Talon didn’t trust Derrick, but she could’ve swore he wasn’t acting right before he left. He slept at odd times. His eyes had grown wide, with deep dark bags filling the space under them. His words grew slow, and his speech warped, if ever so slightly. Talon wondered if the man was sick, but he insisted he felt fine. His activity level had stayed steady, and he seemed to not complain about any negative feelings. Still Talon worried for the man. Today was the day she'd decided that she was going to start preparing to go look for him. In any case, something in her gut told Talon it was time to leave. She didn’t want to stay put any longer. If she was being hunted, hiding could only keep her safe so long. She knew the general direction she needed to go in, but the lack of any sort of map would make navigation a headache.

  Talon neared the dirt road she’d been using a landmark through the forest. It was clearly disused, greenery had overgrown the ditches on the sides of the road, and up on top of the driving surface itself. Talon had a regular place where she'd been hunting some wild cattle. The animals seemed to congregate around clearing in the land, hundreds at a time. Talon wandered across the road, her long, heavy, muscular tail dragged behind her; it was that kind of low energy morning. She yawned with a desperate few clicks when something caught her ear. Down the road, maybe or two hundred meters was an engine. It hummed as it drew closer and closer and closer. Talon panicked as she leaped from the road into the drainage ditch on the side of the road. A truck appeared over a hill. It was a dark grey, with a liberal coating of dust. She eyed the truck’s bed. A large, mechanical device sat, innocuous, as it sped down the road, past Talon. Talon took a deep breath as she eyed down the road. A panic filled her gut as she watched the truck pull over to the side of the road, and stop. From what she could tell, the road went to the town that was across the river by way of a bridge. This truck, though, was heading away from the river, and town. Three figures hopped from the vehicle. Each held a rifle in a sling over their shoulder.

  They all chatted among themselves as Talon narrowed her eyes, pulling them into focus. She listened to their words, yet none came to her, merely the imprint of language. A terrible instinct in her told her to kill them. They were encroaching on her territory , as odd as such language sounded coming from her mind. She came to the logical conclusion that if they found her lair, they'd kill her, thus, she needed to act first.

  Talon took a deep breath as she moved through the underbrush, crouching her way down the side of the road. After a few moments she came to see the figures properly. Each of them was a man, each about six feet tall. Talon lurked closer and closer to the truck, her hulking figure still going unnoticed. She looked at the vehicle, her eyes narrowing as she examined the large box object in the bed of the truck. After a moment, the box rattled to life. Several panels unfolded and, from the top of it, a small, hexagonal drone lifted into the air.

  Talon squinted as she looked at it. The large device hovered for a moment before it ascended above the trees and took off in one direction. Soon another drone did the same, taking off, and starting in another direction, about twenty degrees separate. One by one the drones took off, speeding away, their high pitched whines fading into the forest. Then, one took off, flying directly over Talon. The three men all sat around, they all seemed happy. Smiles on their faces, laughs carried through the wind. They seemed, for all intense and purpose, happy. Blissfully unaware of the monster that was watching.

  Talon smiled at the word in her mind, monster . She had, since she was sixteen, people had called her that. Being trans, on Frontier worlds was seen as an absolute moral failure. Entering college, it was better, but better wasn’t good. Monster; the moniker had stuck. Entering military service, after Eleanor was taken, Talon at least found herself respected by superiors, if only because she was smarter than them and had technical expertise they didn’t. Perhaps they just liked that she knew when to shut and listen, and when they wanted her to act out of line. At least now that Talon was an Aberrant, she actually fit the bill of a monster.

  Talon looked at her hands. They trembled slightly. She realized, if only in that moment, that she was holding herself back. She felt the urge to- do something to these men. After a moment of consideration, Talon realized what it was she wanted to do to them. She hadn’t wanted to face the idea of it. She wanted to Aberrate them. To make them like her . Talon took a deep breath as she steaded her mind against such a sickening instinct. No, Talon was, at least formerly, human, and she would act like it. She would speak to the men; attempt to explain her predicament. If they wanted to try and kill her, Talon supposed she’d just have to let them try.

  Talon stood to her full height. She stepped in a silent grace. Her tail slithered between rocks and underbrush. She, in barely a step and half, scaled the ditch. She took a half dozen small steps towards the men, covering half the distance across the road to them. There was silence that filled the air. The three men ran silent. They were big men. Six, even seven feet tall, two broad shoulders, muscular arms and legs. Yet Talon still made them look small. The men were all silent. They didn’t dare make a move. Talon presumed she’d need to say hello.

  “Goodmorning, gentleman.” Talon yawned, a deep, guttural click echoed from her maw; she was off to a bad start.

  The men all looked at each other. Their eyes meeting in a certain terror. None of them spoke. None of them moved. Their rifles sat slung upon their backs.

  “Now, I understand that my- err -current appearance might be off putting… That’s reasonable. My name is Talon Kileandar. I am a xenogeneticist. I was onboard the Starship Lagoon when a-” Talon bit her tongue, “ lab accident occurred. I was infected by an Aberrant parasite I had been doing extensive gene edits to and-” Talon trailed off, the men didn’t seem to change their demeanor. They stayed frozen. A short look was exchanged between them. As if they had choreographed it, they all pulled their rifles down at the same time.

  “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will…” The man in the middle spoke first. He was dressed in a pair of dusty jeans with an old leather jacket on top of a ratty t-shirt. His dark, draw, almost bark-esque skin paradoxically beaded sweat upon it.

  “Good, cause I don't want to hurt you either. I just need directions to the town, that way, down the river some.” Talon pointed in the general direction she knew to be correct.

  The man on the right, sunburned, but otherwise pale, dressed in a flannel shirt, spoke, “Why?”

  “A friend of mine went there to get us help. He hasn’t returned.”

  There was silence, then an exchange of looks, then the older dark skinned man spoke “Was he- uhh, an Aberrant too?”

  Talon narrowed her eyes, “No?”

  “Was- was his name Derrick?” The man on the left, short, dark tan in complexion, he wore a hat with a decent brim on it.

  Talon’s blood ran cold, “Yes, yes it is.”

  “He, uhh, came to town a week or so ago. Started vomiting blood and this purple goop .” The darkest man spoke to Talon, his eyes were wet; tears, “he ran off into the woods…” He paused, hesitating, “Well, not just the woods… The old UNAF comms bunker, north of Shorewood… Some kids said they saw him- or -something like him in there.”

  UNAF communication relay sites were, despite being largely obsolete, wonders of human ingenuity. Before Liminal transmitters became commonplace and cost effective, communication relays were the backbone of interstellar communication. They worked by, in effect, firing missiles at super luminal speeds from one planet to the next. They could daisy chain links together, transporting information from the farthest limits of Terran space, to Earth itself in a matter of weeks. For a proper starship, even the most modern ones, it could take months to travel those distances. The only complication was that, like starships, they needed a Psychic Navigator to send it on a clear path through the ever changing, complex movements of Liminal Space.

  Talon nodded. It was clear now what was going on with Derrick; he was slowly becoming an Aberrant. Only time would tell if he was to keep most of his mind to himself. Talon merely hoped, beyond reason, that he would still be himself.

  Talon intensely looked at the man. “How do I get there?”

  The middle man spoke again, “Uhh, just follow the road down and- err -it’ll lead past Shorewood, by the bridge… Follow it past the bridge and you’ll reach a large clearing. It’ll look like until you get close, I don’t know anything exact…” The man sputtered, “Just- be careful… There’s landmines in the forest beyond the bunker.” He paused for a moment, but he clearly wanted to speak more.

  “Is that all?” Talon hoped to give him his peace.

  The middle held his head low, he avoided Talon’s eyes, “Just- please don’t hurt anyone… My wife and kids they-”

  “I’m not going to hurt anyone… Not unless they try to hurt me, ok?” Talon gave as jovial a smile as she could.

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  “Th-thank you…” The man on the right spoke, his eyes round, wide, as if he truly didn’t want to believe what he was seeing.

  “I’m gonna go. Don’t follow me, please… I really don’t want to hurt anyone.” Talon smiled as the men, one by one, each, slower than Talon had ever seen anyone do anything, took their rifles from their shoulders and laid them upon the ground. Talon started off into the forest. She wandered through the brush until she was sure they couldn’t see her anymore. She glanced back, the visage of the truck faded into the undergrowth of the forest as Talon plodded along. Today wasn’t a good day.

  #

  Talon marched down the road the man had pointed her towards. Her backpack softly plopped upon her back with each step stride in her jog. The bag was full of the various implants and items she’d brought from the Lagoon; lights, a few together notebooks, pencils and pens, a survival knife, and a few rations she’d not yet felt the desire to dig into. Tied to the side of the bag was a large leg of meat, taken from a cow that found itself separated from its herd. Talon had, over the course of her time in nature, grown an appreciation of predators. Stalking, chasing, and killing their prey wasn’t just instinct, it took cunning, smarts, and will.

  Abject the meat on her pack was a small bag full of potato-like root vegetables Talon had taken a liking to. Strapped to the side opposite the meat, was her shark plush. It bobbed up and down in a sort of ballet with her bag. They had danced for hours now. Through the afternoon, into the evening and now into dusk.

  Finally, Talon had reached something . T-junction, and a road sign. In one direction it pointed, labeled clearly with the name “Shorewood.” The other simply read “N-3102,” no arrow, likely the “name” of the road itself. After several hours of what felt like an increasingly pointless nature walk, it was at least a good sign.

  Ten, fifteen, twenty minutes all came and went, folding past each other into a blur. As the darkness of night slowly crept into the sky, the imminent glow of a town came into focus against the stars. And, after one more downhill bend, as if by magic, the bridge appeared. The dirt path she’d been following formed an intersection with a larger, paved road; the one the bridge was built for. On the other side of the bridge was a town, presumably Shorewood.

  This close to the town, it became clear it wasn’t just some hamlet. The buildings reached three or four stories, with a few outliers Talon was sure were ten or more. The buildings were all built of stone and clay bricks. The arches and decorative carvings Talon knew a Frontier town like this would have, all faded in the darkness of twilight. Only the yellow and white glowing windows and streetlamps shown through like lighthouses in the night. After so long with so few, barely working, lights, the glow of a town in the dark felt oddly enchanting to Talon.

  As her eyes traced along the bluffs over the river, Talon’s eyes caught something. Farther up the river, poised on a cliff edge overlooking the waterway, was a large industrial area. The concrete buildings and short smoke stacks were dark and empty at such an hour. Yet, within the industrial segment of the town, was a small starport. Massive lights illuminated it like day. It held only one ship, a reasonably sized freighter.

  The road atop the bridge was dense with traffic, coming, but most going from the town. It wouldn't be so simple as just crossing the road, not unless Talon wanted to end up roadkill, or just as badly, public enemy number one.

  Talon scanned the bridge, attempting to foment an idea. The bridge spanned across the width of the river. A simple steel triangle design span, it was an inexpensive, reliable, and tried design, one you could place most anywhere in the expanse of Terran space, and it would fit. From the deck of the bridge, it was some hundred feet down to the river below. Talon mulled for a moment before she settled on a plan. She needed to get under the bridge so that she could cross on one of the support beams without needing to cross the road. It would solve two problems with one stone, avoid being seen, and avoid being flattened.

  But, it presented several problems on the face of it. Immediately apparent was the first obstacle, the cross beams of the bridge were, to Talon’s chagrin, some fifteen feet below the deck of the bridge. It wouldn’t have been such an issue had there been an easy way down. Yet, as it seemed, Talon would need to scale down an eighty degree rock slope, in the dark, to get to where the support beams met the cliff. The large steel girders were, luckily, at least a meter across, easy enough to walk on.

  Second in the list of issues were five men. Two stood upon a tower overlooking the road. Three stood in a small booth. Each was, from what details Talon could make out at a distance in the dark, armed. They seemed focused on the road, but there was no guarantee that they’d stay that way.

  Third was the one that was, in odd realization, the least concerning to Talon; she’d never rocked climbed before.

  #

  Talon smiled as she clung onto the roots that hung from the cliff face. Rock climbing was, although stupidly dangerous, very fun! Her large clawed feet could dig into the soft sandstone walls, and could acquire a good grasp on even relatively poor handholds. Something Talon hadn’t thought about, not until she was almost underneath the bridge, was her fear of heights. It was odd, normally even seeing such a large canyon should’ve induced an anxiety response in her. Yet, she hadn’t even felt a tinge of fear or even hesitation about it. She had always been somewhat of an adrenaline junky, she supposed. It could massively reduce or even remove the fear response in people.

  Yet, something still didn’t sit right with Talon. She remembered being so scared of heights that Eleanor had to help her calm down from three panic attacks when they went to a ski resort on their third anniversary. Talon smiled, as she thought of those memories. They were so safe, and happy. It was hardly a wonder why.

  Talon giggled as she thought about her and Eleanor’s honeymoon. They were broke college students, so they just stayed home for two weeks rather than go anywhere fancy. There was something magical about waking up in their tiny two room apartment together, curled under their covers, clinging to each other for warmth as the night’s chill faded.

  —

  “Good morning, Talon.” Eleanor’s words guided Talon to the waking reality.

  Talon felt Eleanor cuddled against her back, spooning her. “Mmmornin…” Talon murmured her words, barely getting them out of her mouth. She let a soft coo from her vocal cords.

  “Somone need more beauty sleep?” Eleanor giggled as set her head between Talon’s ear and shoulder.

  “Maaaybe…” Talon yawned as she gave a quiet whimper. The soft warm sheets flowed around her and Eleanor. They formed a small cocoon from which they would soon emerge. Yet, in that moment of closed eyes, it was Talon’s entire universe.

  Eleanor whispered into Talon’s ear, soft as silk, “I love you, Talon.”

  “I love you too, Elly.” Talon smiled as she rolled over to face Eleanor, her eyes cracking open, desperate to view her newly wed wife.

  Talon, however, didn’t get what she expected. Rather than being face to face with her wife, Talon’s head had suddenly ended up between Eleanor’s breasts. Talon being five foot six, and Eleanor being six foot four, it was a common position for the two of them. Talon gave a sheepish smile as she looked up to the woman, who returned a sly giggle. Eleanor’s skin was the same color as rich soils on Caribia. Deep, warm, ever so slightly red with Eleanor’s natural blush. It was perfect to Talon, as was basically every detail about Eleanor; aside from maybe her instance on living in a nudist colony with Talon some day. The idea of warm summer air flowing over her skin, especially in public, or even in nature, made her anxiety ridden. Talon could hardly stand Eleanor seeing her nude, nonetheless the general public. Then again, she did fine that one time she got drunk at her bachelorette party… Perhaps, for Eleanor, Talon would be able to put her anxieties behind; Eleanor was worth it.

  “Suuup.” Eleanor smiled as she looked down at Talon, who blushed even more heavily now.

  Talon spuddered, “uhh, not much- not much.”

  Eleanor giggled as she, with her elegant grace, pulled her hand to Talon’s body, slipping it under her pajama shirt, and up to Talon’s breasts. “Hmm, well, I know what’s up.”

  Talon let out a quiet moan as Eleanor began to message her nipple.

  “Good girl, I like it when you moan.” Eleanor smiled as she, with her free hand, pulled Talon into a kiss. The two of them embraced for some time before Talon’s grumbly stomach interrupted them. The two of them paused, eyes locked. Talon knew what Eleanor was gonna do before Eleanor even did it. She began to lower her hand from Talon’s breast. It rolled down Talon’s body, until it deposited upon her flabby stomach. Eleanor massaged the fat for a moment, letting out an excited moan. “Hehehe, hungry?”

  Talon cowered slightly, as she couldn’t get but let her eyes roll back in her head. It wasn’t that she had a fat fetish, but the idea of being found attractive at all was intoxicating to Talon.

  “Shhh, shhhh, it’s ok, Tal-Tal. My, oh my… You’re getting bigger, you know that?” Eleanor hadn’t been shy about her aberrant attractions to Talon. It was still odd to Talon though, the idea of someone finding the excess adipose tissue that clung to her body attractive had never occurred to her. Nonetheless, the most attractive woman Talon personally knew found it attractive. And, by some string of luck, that woman was her wife. It felt paradoxical, her wife was thin, or relatively thin, curvy maybe? Eleanor was the epitome of beauty and grace and wit, and she found her love placed in, according to Talon’s recollection, an ugly, fat, at times musky, trans woman. Yet Eleanor hardly complained about Talon’s, at times, self admittedly, gross habits. No, Eleanor found it alluring in some odd paradox, something about Talon was irreplaceable to Eleanor.

  “I’m gaining weight? Oh noooo…” Talon knew Eleanor loved it when she feigned ignorance. Denial, some special kink of hers.

  Eleanor smiled as she pulled away from Talon, “But of course! It looks wonderful on you, just so you know.” Eleanor, with a sly grin, stood from the bed. She wore nothing but her loose fitting crop top and panties.

  “Wonderful for who?” Talon smirked as she purposefully pulled the blanket off herself, revealing her soft, plush form to Eleanor.

  “Oh, you love the game, don’t lie.” Eleanor smiled, “Why don’t we get something to eat, huh?” Eleanor began morning stretches, purposely pushing her butt into Talon’s view, a smirk upon her face.

  Talon, although enjoying her front row seat, could help but crack a joke, “You must be horny today, cause, I mean, look at what you’re doing.”

  “What, a girl can’t flaunt her ass ets?”

  “Did I say that?” Talon raised an eyebrow with a smirk.

  “Ugh, it’s such a shame you hate my ass.” Eleanor’s sarcastic tone and eye roll practically made Talon leap from the bed and tackle hug Eleanor. Luckily for Eleanor, it was too early for such loving violence.

  Talon giggled, “I mean, I married it, didn’t I?”

  “True, true, but I’ve seen loveless marriages.” Eleanor turned around, raising an eyebrow as she took her pajama crop-top off, replacing it with a t-shirt from her dresser. The dresser was a rich, dark wood that matched the entire apartment’s trim. Talon smiled as she looked around at the exposed grey brickwork that Eleanor loved. Not to mention the new paint she and Eleanor had spent a week debating; it was all home.

  “Fair, but I don’t think we’d have gotten this far if our hearts weren’t in it. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that you have a nice ass.” Talon chortled, Eleanor joined her.

  Eleanor smiled as she sat down on the bed, shoving her rear into Talon’s face, “Well good, I’m glad you like it, it’s gonna be with you for the rest of our lives .”

  —

  Talon made the leap from the rock face onto the steel structure of the bridge. In the darkness, she was reliant on the dim light that faded underneath the bridge from the lamplight above. Yet, her eyes, in their Aberrant fashion, adjusted to the darkness. Talon’s clawed feet grasped at the steel, undoubtedly scrapping up a decent amount of paint. She looked to the other side of the beam she needed to walk across. She always thought it funny how a meter wide path would pose no issue to walk down, but a meter wide gangway would force an anxiety spike, even in the most confident.

  Talon slowly inched her way across the beam. Step by care, plotted step. A light breeze pulled a mist from the rushing river below her. Where the bridge passed over the river, it appeared to be a turbulent narrows, creating a rapids. Talon smiled as she neared the halfway point, with each step, her fear of falling reduced, and the confidence in her walk increased.

  Then, Talon heard it. A voice, that of man. He seemed angry as he shouted, “Hey! What the fuck are you doing?”

  Talon nearly fell from the beam as she flung around to face towards the voice. She could barely see the figure of the man. He was backlit by the streetlights on the bridge, leaving his face obscured by darkness. Talon merely stood there, watching the man. Both her and him were unmoving, merely looking at each other. The silent void of conversation was filled with the rushing water below.

  “Come over here, right now!” The man, once more, shouted, his voice seemed angrier this time.

  Talon realized, with relief, that he probably couldn’t see her beyond her vague visage; a piece of luck she wouldn’t waste. Talon took off down the beam of the bridge, her feet moving with the confidence of someone on solid ground. It was barely two or three seconds before she made it to the other side of the bridge. She could hear the shouts coming from the man, now joined by two others from different locations, yet that only enticed her to move faster. As she reached the end of the beam, Talon made her leap. It was taken entirely on faith. Her form fell for what felt like a second too long before she landed upon a ledge. Her forward momentum carried her into a run along the ledge. She couldn’t see the ground well in the darkness, but she could see the shimmering water far below her, on the left. She used it as a guide along the path, hoping that, at any second, the ledge wouldn’t spontaneously end, dropping her into the gnawing waters below. Talon smiled as she felt the ledge increase upwards. She followed her feet, on an ill advised hope. Yet, counter to what Talon truly expected, the ledge merged with the flat ground on top, leading her right back to the road she needed to follow.

  Talon caught her breath for a moment, yet a pursuing pale glow forced her to spin on her heel. She was suddenly facing three people, all with rifles, all of which were pointed at her. Beyond those scant details, they became washed out in the bright glow of their flashlights. Talon, again, took off running. She felt her legs burn, her heart pound, and her lungs seize. Yet she carried on, leaving the lights behind. Within a moment, she was back into the forest she’d grown familiar with. The trees enclosed around her, the wildlife grew silent, and the boots of the three people behind her, relentless in their mission. They held an odd determination that could only be thought of as admirable.

  Through the thick greenery and darkness, Talon, finally, spotted her destination skylined against the night. She wasn’t sure it’d be so easy to see, but the massive radio tower, and large decaying satellite dish marked it clear as day. The road terminated at a large loading dock built into a hillside. Next to it was a large airlocked door, though it sat ajar, opened to the elements; it was probably the main entrance to the bunker, and that meant it was Talon’s destination.

  Talon sprinted, even faster now, chucks of soil grabbed and kicked back by each foot fall. She could sense the three people behind her growing closer, and closer and closer. Their lights zeroed in on her as she clambered up the stairs to the door, then, clear as day, she heard a shout; “ Shoot it !”

  Talon jumped inside of the bunker’s airlock as several yellow tracers danced by her. They impacted inside of the bunker, one even ricocheted. Talon grabbed the door’s handle, and slammed it closed. She desperately cranked at the handle, bit by bit spinning it and rotating its locking mechanism. The grinding metallic screech echoed around the enclosed airlock before, finally, she felt the lock engage. The door was sealed.

  Talon stood there, her world spun as she stumbled for a moment. Her adrenaline, as if on cue, began to fade. She stumbled to the far door of the room. She pushed on it, and, to a relieved smile, it gave little in the way of resistance. Past the door, it was incredibly dark, darker than even her predating eyes could see in. Talon took a deep breath as she pulled her bag from her back, and fished out a lamp. It glowed to life with a relaxed yellow aura. She relaxed as she stepped through the threshold of the door. The hall of the bunker looked, and felt just that of a derelict starship. Nothing to be frightened of.

  It was then that a familiar scent found her nose; Aberrant Ichor . Talon’s gut constricted, her eyes grew wide, and her legs tensed. The scent was faint, distant, and, most terribly, she knew, beyond doubt, that it was not her own . That was what she knew to be afraid of.