Exploring

I keep my eyes open and look all around us for any signs of life but it doesn't seem to be anything. Is that a good thing or is it a bad thing? CheeChee silently looks around but he too seems unnerved by the unnatural silence surrounding us as we continue to walk.

When I hear a loud explosion in the distance, I decide to cautiously check it out. Suddenly, bright blue lightning streaks across the blood-red sky before diving down and striking something. When the lightning hits, the ground shakes with the explosion before being followed by a shockwave!

When it hits me, I stumble back a few feet with a shocked look on my face. Did a lightning strike really just cause a shockwave!? When I see more appearing out of nowhere, I start to get the impression that someone is creating it.

The tree in front of us suddenly explodes!! Bark and wood splitters everywhere as I quickly use my powers to create a wall of wind protection. When I feel a slight sting on my cheek, I lift my hand and feel that my cheek is bleeding!

When I look back to the tree, or, what's left of it... I see someone or something sitting in a crouched position. My heart skips a beat as I slowly take a step back. When it lifts its head, yellow glowing eyes are seen watching my every move.

When it slowly starts to tilt its head in an inquisitive manner, I get a chill running down my back. It was human only... it wasn't. Its eyes... there was no humanity. Only an animalistic intelligence that was currently measuring its potential prey. Me...

When it opens its mouth, long sharp teeth are seen. CheeChee practically merges with my neck as I grit my teeth and slowly pull my power to me. There was no outrunning this thing... No, this was going to be a fight to the death. A fight for survival.

The man slowly starts to stand as a low growl can be heard from his open mouth. He may have been human at one time but right now, I'm looking at a beast. I quickly loosen the pouch on my side as I softly say "Walk away and you can live to see another day. I can't die here... I refuse to."

I don't know if he can actually understand me or not but I felt like I needed to give him a fair warning. He opens his mouth more, baring his sharp teeth at me as he hisses at me. Lightning streaks across the sky again, instantly making the man before me flinch. He was clearly afraid of the lighting but not enough to run.

He lunges at me, with sharp claws extending towards my neck! I quickly step back and lift my hand, covering it in flames before hitting him in the throat. He growls and howls in pain but he quickly puts the flames out before turning to face me again.

I lift the small metal balls with my power, circling them in front of me with a determined look on my face. I can't spend too much time or energy on this thing. There's no telling how many more there are out here...

As soon as he tries to attack again, I shoot the metal beads at the man with no mercy. They hit him like bullets but instead of going through him, I make them explode inside of him. The man stops in surprise before slowly looking down.

When he looks back up to me, I call all the metal beads back to me. They rip him apart, yet again as he falls to his knees and faceplants without another word. I grit my teeth and spin the beads free of blood before calling them back into my little pouch.

I look down at the man and decide to check him. I need to know what I'm dealing with out here... I carefully kick at him but when I get no response, I look around before crouching down next to him and checking his pulse.

Nothing... I look around once more before pushing him over and checking him. He's not wearing shoes or a shirt and the pants he's currently wearing are barely holding on. When I look to his hands, I lean in closer to see his claws.

It's not just his nails... his fingers were changing! They were morphing into the black claws that are currently seen. I quickly look back to his feet and clench my teeth. His feet were doing the same. Something here is changing him... He was adapting to this new world.

I look around again but when another lightning bolt crashes down, it's followed by another powerful shock wave. I look around for any other deformities but I can only see the most obvious. His eyes, his teeth, hands, and feet have all started to change.

There's no telling what kind of changes have taken place internally. I quickly stand up and start heading towards the lighting strikes. I thought about going in the other direction but I need to make sure I haven't missed him.

If it was him currently fighting against some crazy lighting freak... I need to help him. If I walked away and he got killed when I was this close... I wouldn't be able to live with myself. I need to find him as soon as possible and get us both out of here before we both start looking like the guy I killed.

I decide to pick up the pace and start running. I easily maneuver through the woods and branches without making a noise or drawing attention. I steady my breathing and quickly approach the area. I know I'm close when I see the trees around us broken or completely blown over.

I slow my pace and sneak up on the site but to my surprise, I don't see a thing. The ground where the lightning struck is completely black and even has a large hole! The trees around the area are completely gone, like the lightning completely blew them away or disintegrated them!

I keep my breathing low as I look around the area with wide eyes but when I feel the hairs on the back of my neck start to stand, I quickly realize something's behind me!