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I’ll never forget my sixteenth birthday. My parents were big on the whole sweet sixteen thing and wanted it to be special. It was ‘special’ alright!

We flew to Australia for a week. We arrived three days before my birthday and would leave three days after. Sounds like a great sweet sixteen; and it might have been if not for that trip to the beach.

We’d been doing the tourist thing for a couple of days. My birthday was all planned out, but the day before was whatever I wanted it to be. I decided to go to the beach. My parents weren’t surprised; I’ve always loved the ocean.

My Dad decided we would go somewhere off the beaten track. So we went driving until we found a place where we could get to the ocean but there weren’t a lot of other people around. In fact, there weren’t any other people!

I spent the whole day there, swimming as much as I could. I rested on the beach when I got too tired to swim, but only until I was ready to go back out! I had a great time and thanked my parents for taking me.

We celebrated my birthday the next day, which was great! A couple of days later I started feeling sick. We all assumed it was the flu at first. I started throwing up a lot. But I didn’t stop! I threw up so much I became really weak and passed out. My Mom got scared and took me to the hospital.

I woke up in the hospital with an IV in my arm. Mom was sitting on one side of me, Dad on the other. They were glad to see me wake up and told me what happened. They hadn’t heard back from a doctor, yet.

We talked while we waited for someone to tell us what was going on. I was feeling a little better. I wasn’t throwing up anymore, anyway. Mom said I looked like I’d lost twenty pounds, which is scary considering I’ve always been really thin.

Finally a doctor walked in. “Hello, my name is Dr. Morris.” He said in greeting.

“What’s wrong with my baby?” Mom asked anxiously.

“Well, the short answer is she’s mutating.” Dr. Morris answered.

Mom looked confused and asked, “What are you talking about?”

“We’ve been getting quite a few cases lately. It’s the result of some kind of illegal toxic waste dumping, or so I’ve heard. People all around the Pacific Rim have been affected. Most survive and are, in fact, often healthier than they were before mutating. The down side is that they often pick up animal traits. Sometimes psychological, like hunting instincts that can take over, or physical traits like claws and fangs.” Dr. Morris explained.

“My daughter is not becoming an animal!” Dad roared. I winced and leaned away from him. It’s no fun being near him when he gets mad.

The doctor managed to remain calm; I guess he has to deal with this kind of thing sometimes. “Mr. Carson, I didn’t say your daughter was going to become an animal. She may gain one or more animal traits, but she’ll still be human.” He said.

“Surely there’s something you can do about this?!” Mom exclaimed.

Dr. Morris shook his head regretfully. “We still don’t understand how this works. There’s nothing we can do except make her as comfortable as possible until the mutation has run its course.” He replied.

Dad stormed out and Mom followed with a brief apologetic look towards the doctor. Neither of them looked at me.

“Are you alright, Shawna?” Dr. Morris asked me.

“I’m scared, what happens if I look like an animal after this?” I asked fearfully. It didn’t sound like my parents could accept that. I wasn’t even sure if I could accept that!

“I’m sure once they’ve calmed down your parents will come around.” Dr. Morris said hopefully. I don’t think he believed it any more than I did.

He left after that, and a nurse came around with some food. I picked at it, but I didn’t have an appetite. An hour later I was throwing it up; and a lot more. How much more weight could I lose?

I never saw my parents again. I was out of it for a couple of days, the doctors kept me sedated because I was in a lot of pain. When that finally passed I found I was only four foot eight! I’d been five foot six inches before. I was tiny now!

That was bad enough, but I was also getting some animal traits, just like I feared. My eyes looked different, as did my ears. My teeth seemed sharper, too. My fingernails had thickened and grown out like claws. I later learned my toenails were the same.

When I asked about my parents, Dr. Morris looked sorrowful and answered, “They were very upset when they saw the changes you’ve gone through so far. I’m afraid I had to have security escort your father out.”
I nodded. Dad has a bad temper, it sounded like something he’d do.

My body kept changing after that. I didn’t get any smaller, thankfully. My claws grew out more, and fangs, too. Fur grew out on my hands and feet, and my feet and hips changed shape. Dr. Morris told me it would make it easier to walk on all fours, but it probably wouldn’t keep me from walking on just my legs.

My ears migrated to the top of my head. I also grew a tail. It’s long and fluffy, and colored just like a raccoons. Obviously that’s where I got my animal traits from, a raccoon. At least I got them from a cute and clever animal.

Once I could finally keep something down, it still took a couple of days to get my strength back. Once I did they were ready to discharge me, but to where? Dr. Morris had found out that my parents had flown back to the states.

I was depressed because of how like an animal I really looked, so I didn’t pay much attention to what was going on around me. Someone gave me some clothes to wear, and they led me out of the hospital. I was taken to a house where a couple who fostered kids was supposed to look after me until they could figure out what to do with me.

That went out the window as soon as I stepped inside, and soon so did I. They were violently apposed to having an ‘animal’ in their house and attacked me. The guy who took me there had just dropped me off, so there was no one else there to help me, assuming they’d even want to.

After jumping through a window to escape the crazy foster parents I ran for as long as I could. I ended up in an alley behind a garbage bin. I had some cuts and scratches from jumping through the window, but otherwise I was okay. I rested there until I got my breath back and thought about what I’d do.

I figured the foster parents from hell would tell whoever sent me there that I’d run away or something. I didn’t know who to trust, so I decided to stay out of sight for a while.

I lived off food found in dumpsters for a few days until I met up with a group of guys with a serious hate on for mutants. Next thing I know, I’m back in the hospital.

“Hello again, Shawna.” Dr. Morris said as he entered my room.

I had just woken up, but his arrival made it clear where I was. “Hi.” I said, wondering what would happen next.

“Why did you run away from the foster family that was supposed to look after you?” he asked.

“I didn’t run away, I was chased away!” I yelled back. “I had to jump through a window to get away from those lunatics!”

Dr. Morris rocked back on his heels when I yelled at him. He seemed genuinely upset over what I told him. “I’m very sorry to hear that. Where have you been all this time?” he asked.

I shrugged, “Hiding.”

He nodded and proceeded to tell me what my injuries were. Apparently those thugs had broken three ribs, an arm, a leg, and given me a skull fracture. I’d been in the hospital for a couple of days. The amazing thing was that I was almost fully healed!

“How’s that possible?” I asked in astonishment.

“It seems to be part of the mutation. I don’t know if all mutants get it, but several have shown to have unusually fast healing rates. In more severe mutations, like yours, the rate of healing is usually even faster.” He explained. Well, at least I got something useful out of it, besides an annoyingly good sense of smell and hearing.

Dr. Morris said he’d make some calls and see about getting me back to the states, but nothing ever came of it. A couple of days later I was back on the streets.

It seemed like every week or two I came across somebody who hates mutants. Sometimes I managed to get away. The rest of the time I ended up back with Dr. Morris. He got more upset each time I saw him, but there was nothing he could do. I always ended up back on the street. Which was fine with me, I didn’t trust anyone anymore.

I had to keep moving during the day to avoid the roving groups of thugs who seemed to be actively hunting me now. Apparently word had gotten around and lots of people wanted me gone.

One day I was running from one of those groups, only to run into another one. I changed direction, but there was yet another group of crazies! They’d set a trap for me! We were out in the open, so I couldn’t even climb up on a building or tree or something. They weren’t coming at me as fast as usual, trying to make sure I didn’t get away.

I was totally surrounded, and I knew I wouldn’t be seeing Dr. Morris this time. They weren’t going to be satisfied with just roughing me up. I was way too small to fight back. I’d gotten really good reflexes out of my mutation, but no strength at all.

I thought I saw a big bird circling overhead, just before they started pummeling me and I blacked out.

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 To Be Continued...in KittyHawk Part 5
 

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