I first noticed the eagle as I finished setting up my fire for the night, skewering a foraged carcass to roast it.
The creature was a solid brown color, its chitinous hide absolutely flawless, as if glazed in chocolate. Not even its eyes peeked through.
Still, it blinked, cocking its head at me.
“Fugitive,” it called me, its voice a scratchy boom that sent smaller birds flying from the underbrush.
I averted my eyes, focusing on turning the skinned rabbit to heat it evenly.
“Fugitive,” the eagle repeated, and my grip around the stick tightened.
I couldn’t look. If I did, I would have to acknowledge its reality.
“Fugitive,” another voice shouted. I flinched, dropping the rabbit into the fire, ashes, and dirt.
There they were. The hunters. They would take me in to continue the trials. They didn’t know.
The crackling of dry leaves under heavy boots crescendoed as I crouched in front of my ruined dinner, petrified in fear.
“Fugitive.”
This time, it was softer. The man was close now, standing behind me.
“Fugitive,” the eagle agreed, but the stranger couldn’t hear it. Not yet.
I didn’t acknowledge his arrival, brushing soot off my dinner, my fingers seared by the scalding meat.
“Do you know what could have happened if I hadn’t found you in time? It’s enough of a fiasco as is, breaching security like that, but if you got away? You could have endangered the entire world.”
I knew that. Better than anyone else.
However, after finding out what the research was about…I was beholden to no one. Not anymore.
I signed a contract to test biological weapons, not whatever this was. It wasn’t biological at all.
It was new – not an innovation, but an invasion.
“Look, I have the vaccine right here. You need to let me administer it before it’s too late.”
Oh, but it already was.
Soon, it would have intruded far enough for him to perceive. The lesser animals already fled in terror.
Our rational human minds took longer to fathom its nature, but eventually, they did.
Mine did.
A syringe stabbed into my right arm unbidden. It didn’t matter.
“There we go. Attaboy. Now, where’s your friend?”
My friend…was where I would soon be.
He showed me my future. A future as a different creature. Already, the rabbit had lost all appeal as my definition of nourishment shifted.
I needed to get out. It was getting too hard to breathe.
Maybe this was the effect of that vaccine.
I struggled against the membranes binding me, twisting and clawing against the fleshy prison. If I didn’t free myself soon, I would suffocate.
By now, my previous form was alien. Static descended upon my terrestrial memory as I thrashed against the shell confining me.
Then, I broke through, ripping my way out of layers of muscles and meat, until fresh air filled my tired lungs.
“Feast,” croaked my partner in the tree.
“Feast,” I agreed, eyeing our prey.
NotHack Europa 