The Virus: A Short Story

Thunder roars in the distance, rattling its smoky chains and sending lashes of lightning into the distance. The sight of stars was covered by the ominous cloudy-clad figures that crawled across the sky, dragging the thunderous prisoner along with them.

The feminie figure pressed closer to the brick wall, the first tears of rain drop from the darkened sky. She could hear the snuffling of her pursuers, their mutated figures silhouetted by the searching torchlight.

The virus came, which mutated humans into part-man part-animals. General thought processing downgraded into basic instincts; eat, sleep, survival. The pathogen infected the lungs, with every breath the virus spread into the air, infecting animals and humans. Then the human being took on a selected aspect of a specific species other than their own. Webs, claws, fur and scales were commonly found and used as tools in

Any non-infected person was rumoured to have been welcomed into the fortress.

Feeling the caress of rain stroke her face, the teenager tensed up, her muscles preparing for a mixture of fight and flight.

The hunters froze, all in unison, a hiss from a reptilian transfiguration curdled in the air. A falcon cry pierced the whispering rain like a spear and the mutations seeped back into the darkness.

The girl launched herself into the broken light of the streetlamps, sprinting through the post-apocalyptic streets. Buildings pushed their crumbling fists into the darkened sky and shadows formed more infected.

Her throat began to tighten; her breath was spat out in a wheeze. An infected leg, slowed her down, and bit back a cry as she slid between the two remains of cars.

Two kilometres west, one north. Two... She repeated the directions in her head like a mantra, spurring her on to the victory.

The fabled Wall of Protection loomed in the murky distance, barbed wire, snaked its way up the chipped