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She runs through the forest until the small policeman on her shoulder yells, “I think we're safe. Can we stop?”
Astrid slows down and leans forward to let Noah jump off her shoulders. He’s not heavy, but with his weight gone, her spine feels like it’s stretching back up. She cracks her neck and takes a deep breath. Never before has she run like that, especially not with someone on her shoulders, yet she barely feels exhausted.
Noah pats down his fur. “Damn. You have a hard shoulder.”
“Yeah, sorry about that, but…” Astrid gestures at his small form.
“Yeah, I know we—” He stops talking and turns his head to the left. Just as Astrid is about to ask him if everything is all right, he snaps his head back. “There are people nearby.”
She stops moving and listens, but all she can hear is the chirping of birds and rustling of leaves. “I don't hear anything.”
He looks up at Astrid. His furry expression is impossible to read, but his voice sounds a bit angry. “You got a large, badass body. I got this tiny, weak, and cute thing, but whatever transformed us at least had the decency to give me really good senses. So when I tell you I can hear someone talking over there, you can be sure there's someone there. Your ears just can’t hear it.”
Astrid raises her hands in surrender.
He lets out a long breath, then says, “Now," he pulls his gun from its holster, “let’s find out if those people are friendly.”
Noah leads her through the foliage, but stealth is apparently also challenge for Astrid’s new body. No matter how hard she tries, every step seems to break some sort of twig. If she pays more attention to where she’s stepping, low-hanging branches whip her in the face.
The former police officer has little trouble moving quietly and sends her an angry look every time she breaks a twig or lets out an involuntary, “Ouch.”
Through the leaves and past several trees, a man says, “What's this crap? Why isn’t this working?”
A woman’s voice replies, “Keep calm. If we start walking now, we ought to catch up to the others before sundown.”
Astrid and Noah push aside a few branches to reveal a small, unpaved parking space. The voices belong to a woman and a man. Both are wearing camouflage and warning vests that look brown to Astrid. More importantly, both are still completely human. Two normal humans in their late thirties.
Their car is parked on a small unpaved parking space. Tinted windows prevent sight of the inside of the vehicle and apparently, the silver SUV is just as broken as all the other cars. What draws Astrid’s attention more than anything is the weapon slung over the man’s back. It’s a simple bolt-action rifle, with a wooden stock, a small scope and a suppressor attached to the front.
Astrid stops, but Noah steps out of cover without a thought and yells, “Hello there!"
The two jump at the sound of the policeman’s squeaky voice and spin around to face them.
The man’s eyes widen. “Holy… what are you?”
Astrid just shrugs, while Noah says, “No idea. We just woke up like this after the fog.”
Astrid wonders why the policeman next to her doesn't even comment on the fact that the man is carrying a suppressed rifle in the middle of the forest.
The man and woman look at each other, and turn back to Astrid and Noah. “You’re joking, right?" the man asks.
“I wish I were.”
The man looks Noah up and down. “You’re wearing a police… belt? Are you a police officer? What in God’s name is going on?”
“I have no idea. All I got was the emergency broadcast. My partner…” Noah pauses for a moment, but gathers himself quickly, “My partner and I heard the broadcast on the radio. The police frequency went wild, and a moment later, all communication cut out. Then the fog came and we fell unconscious. When we woke up, I looked like this.”
Astrid quickly adds, “Same thing happened to me. I was driving to my grandparents with my family and suddenly I look like this.”
The two humans stare at them. They both look like they can’t believe what they’ve just heard.
The woman shakes her head. “So what? Magical nukes that don’t go boom just filled the forest with monsters? And we meet a policeman who's been turned into some kind of… kobold and a woman who's become some sort of elf.” She turns to her husband. “This was supposed to be a normal hunt. The most exciting thing I thought would happen is that we would get to see a deer!”
The policeman ignores her and looks at the man as well. “All right. I take it you're part of the drive hunt that was supposed to go down today. Where are the other hunters?”
The man looks like he wants to answer, but the woman is faster. “The other beaters and marksmen are on their way to Mr. Winkler's house. I came to get my husband from his stand. We’re about to go there too.”
The man nods at them. “You two should probably come with us. There’s some sort of monstrous creature prowling around. I shot three rounds into it with my rifle, but it didn't die. We should probably get out of here before it comes back. By the way, I didn’t catch your names.”
“I’m Astrid.”
“I'm Noah.”
The man nods again. “I'm Lukas, and that's my wife, Julia.”
The fur around Noah’s mouth moves into what looks like a smile. “Nice to meet you two. Let's try to reach the old Sheriff’s house before sundown. Even if we got lucky running into you guys, I don't even want to know what kind of terrors the night is going to throw at us.”
While the two grab the rest of their gear from the car, Astrid whispers to Noah, “Aren't you going to say anything about the fact that that guy is carrying a freaking silenced rifle?”
Noah shrugs. “Apparently they allow them for hunters now.”
Lukas interrupts them by saying, “Damn. I only brought ten rounds with me,” while he feeds ammunition into his rifle’s internal magazine.
Astrid asks, “Why would you only bring ten rounds?! How many do you have left?”
He pushes the rifle's bolt forward with more force than necessary, causing a loud clack. “Seven. Usually, you only need one or two shots on a hunt and I did not expect a freaking magic fog.”
The group leaves the parking space behind and starts following the rough country road.
Astrid tries to walk as slowly as she can, but Noah still has to jog to keep up with her.
They pass a meadow covered in pink flowers that Astrid has never seen before. They seem to be growing out of thin, ivy-like vines that snake between the grass. She’s so focused on the plants that she walks straight into a car.
“Uff.” Astrid catches herself on the vehicle's trunk. The small car has crashed into the guardrails. The driver's door is open and the inside empty.
Lukas says, “Watch out,” earning himself a glare from Astrid.
Noah keeps his eyes on the abandoned vehicle as they continue walking. “So this is it. The world has ended, and it's not because of melting icecaps or pollution, but because of freaking magic. Kind of makes me feel like an idiot for recycling.” He chuckles.
Astrid wants to laugh, but the forced chuckle doesn’t make it past her throat and the only thing that comes out is a quiet scoff.
He waits for another reaction but as none comes, he adds, “I really hope this transformation can be reversed.”
Astrid searches for something to say. She looks down at him and asks, “What’s your new body like?”
“You mean besides the fact that I'm barely as big as a toddler and have a tail? Well, this little thing does seem to at least come with really good eyes, ears, and a superb nose. I see much better, and from your reactions, I apparently also hear much better. I’m not sure if the awesome nose is more of a blessing or a curse though.”
“Why?” Astrid asks him. “I’d think being able to smell everything would be cool.”
Noah scowls. “It kind of is, but it’s not very comfortable. I smell all kinds of things really well. Among them, other people.”
“What do we smell like?”
He smiles. “It’s hard to describe, but you all have a distinct smell about you. Yours is a bit more… distinct than Lukas and Julia’s. Anyway, what's it like to be… an elf?”
Astrid realizes that he just told her she smells, but seeing as she pretty much asked for it, decides not to acknowledge it. “Well…” she starts to answer Noah's question, “aside from the fact that I'm bigger and stronger, I also see things differently. Colors are off, and living beings, as well as some other things, are highlighted by a red glow.” She doesn't mention her new aggression and the reading problems she had earlier.
“So in your eyes, I'm literally glowing red?”
She replies with a nod.
“Damn, you got it good. Not like me with this crappy teddy bear body.”
She can't help but agree.
Noah takes a long, deep breath. “You know what? The most unsettling thing about this whole ordeal isn’t even the fact that my partner just died or that I'm no longer human. It’s not knowing what the hell is going on. Was that fog just a local or a global event? Are only our electronics not working, or has every bit of advanced technology in the world been disabled? What was with that emergency broadcast? We obviously didn’t get annihilated by nuclear fire, though maybe whoever was in charge saw something coming and just activated this automated warning. It’s also possible we actually were a few minutes away from sterilizing earth and God just decided to intervene at the last moment and reshuffle all of existence as a way to show mortals that he exists, can do whatever he wants and is not a fan of his creations destroying themselves. Maybe something else entirely happened. Fact is, we have absolutely no idea what’s happening and it’s terrifying.”
Astrid thinks for a moment. Knowing nothing makes her feel small and vulnerable. More to convince herself, she says, “We can't just curl up and cry. I mean, my parents and brothers are gone, and the thought that they might be resting in the stomach of one of those monsters sends a chill down my spine. Still, there's no point in feeling sorry for ourselves. It only makes us feel bad and nothing else.” Astrid is almost surprised at her own confidence. She wonders, ‘Was I always this strong, or is this another one of this new body’s features?’
Noah’s eyes widen. “Now that’s a healthy attitude if I ever heard one. You're right, of course. There is no point in thinking about it right now.”
Their conversation is cut shorter as Noah spots something ahead. “Look, over there. Cars.”
True enough, a bit down the road, a group of broken-down cars blocks both lanes.
As they get closer, a black bird takes off from between the vehicles.
The cause of the holdup is a bus. The large vehicle crashed into a car while trying to take a curve, probably during the fog.
The first car they reach is abandoned, with all four of its doors open. The next few are as well. But not the bus. There, next to the vehicle’s exit, lies the corpse of a man. Crows and some other birds the size of geese pick at the remains, while flies buzz around them.
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The larger birds are mostly black, but their chests are covered in massive white feathers that make it look like the birds have furs draped around their necks. Their heads look rather small compared to their chests. With their sharp, slightly orange beaks, they pick at the corpse’s exposed flesh.
As Astrid and the others watch, a crow attempts to pick at the man's hand, only for one of the larger birds to snap at it with a hiss.
Julia lets out a gasp.
Hearing the noise, the birds snap their heads up to stare at them. The crow that just got snapped at manages to pick at the man's hand while the larger birds are distracted.
Astrid takes the first step towards the body. In unison, all five birds push out their chests and flap their wings, while making angry hisses at her. The feathers on the underside of their wings are a very dark red. The sudden display of aggression causes Astrid to recoil. She notices that another corpse lies on the hood of a car. More birds are picking at it as well.
Anger swells up inside her. ‘How dare these birds eat our dead?’ she thinks.
The frustration that’s been building inside her over the past few hours turns into rage. She lunges at the birds.
All of them take flight as she jumps them. While its compatriots already fluttered away, the smallest doesn’t take off fast enough, and Astrid manages to catch its leg. The bird shrieks and picks at her hand.
The sudden burst of pain causes her to tighten her grip and crush the creature's leg like a vice. Both its talons and her own fingernails dig into her skin. The pain is intense, but it doesn’t cause her to hesitate or relent. It forces her mind to focus more.
With a fast motion, she grabs the bird’s neck as it is about to prepare another attack with its beak. It lets out another shriek before she squeezes it with all her strength. The bird struggles for its life, only causing her to tighten her vice-like grip.
The pressure hurts her hand, but she can't relent.
The bird's hollow bones fail to withstand the pressure, and its neck snaps. The creature goes limp. With the resistance gone, the wave of anger subsides. The young elf slowly opens her hand, allowing the carcass to drop to the floor.
Lukas says, “Holy shit.”
Astrid slowly turns to face the others, staring at her bloodied hand. Her own fingernails have pierced her skin and drawn blood. At that moment she'd just done what felt right, but now she feels wrong. She just brutally killed that animal. And the worst part isn't that she couldn't have stopped herself, but that she hadn't even considered doing so.
“What. The. Hell was that?” she asks, more to herself than the others.
Noah says, “Good catch.”
She did just grab a bird mid-takeoff and crush it like an egg. Her hand balls into a fist and her whole body feels like it's filled with strength. A feeling of empowerment she has never felt before.
Julia says, “Well, it was a bit excessive.”
Lukas walks up to the man’s corpse. “As long as she can do that with the dangerous monsters as well, I'm not going to complain.”
At first glance, the corpse looks like that of an average middle-aged man, with dark skin and black hair. His face is frozen in an expression of absolute pain and horror, while his features look gaunt. The birds have already ripped out large parts of flesh, making it impossible to determine exactly what killed him.
Julia whispers, “God, what happened to him?”
Lukas wonders, “I'd much rather know where all the other people from these cars have gone. Maybe they all found some safe place to go?”
Noah considers this, then says, “It’s not far to the Winkler’s. If they’re anywhere, they'll be there.” After a moment of staring at the flies buzzing around the corpse, he adds, “Well, no point in waiting here til we join the dead. Let's get going.”
They pass a few more fresh corpses, already assaulted by scavengers. The moment they walk away from the bodies, the crows and carrion birds swoop back down and continue ripping pieces out of them.
For a moment, Astrid considers asking the others whether they could give these people a quick burial, but quickly realizes that they don't have shovels and that the sky is already turning orange.
They keep following the road, passing the occasional derelict car. The sun has almost completely disappeared by the time they see the houses. Small amounts of light spill out of the windows of the largest house and the air is filled with the distinct smell of burning wood. They quickly draw closer, and as they do, they see figures moving inside.
The thought that they are about to find other people makes Astrid want to run to the nearby building. If she’s lucky, they'll have some food too, because her stomach is already making its presence known again.
They reach the house, but before Noah knocks, he turns to the rest and says, “I know the Sheriff. Let me talk.” He tries the doorbell, but the button produces no sound.
Before he can knock, the door swings open and a multitude of voices spills out into the night. Another elf stands in the doorway. Unlike Astrid’s cream-colored hair, hers is brown with white streaks. She has it tied back in a ponytail that leaves her triangular ears completely uncovered. She's a lot smaller than Astrid, and her skin has a slight yellowish hue. The woman’s eyes are the same piercing yellow as the other elf’s and Astrid is their first target.
Even though the woman has a friendly expression, her stare is as piercing as a laser. Astrid wonders whether she looks just as threatening.
The other elf’s gaze quickly switches to Noah, who has just pulled out his badge. “Can we talk to Sheriff Winkler?”
Instead of answering, she quickly beckons them to come in. As soon as they are inside, the door slams shut.
With the sun almost completely gone, the flickering orange light that spills from what looks like the living room into the hallway is the only thing keeping the darkness at bay. The hallway itself is empty, but the sound of voices coming from the living room and kitchen make it obvious that there are many more people here.
“Evening, Officer Turner. You are talking to… her,” the elf says, her teeth clenched.
Noah's eyes widen. “You… You are Sheriff Winkler…? I mean, sorry.”
The elf looks down at him. “It's good to see another cop. We've got about thirty people here. What's the situation in town?”
“I don't know. Elsa and I were on patrol during the event.” Noah pauses for a moment, then adds, “A monster ripped her apart.”
The elf nods. “Damn… that’s bad news,” she says in a dark tone. She pauses for a moment, then asks, “Who are they?”, nodding at Noah's entourage.
He glances at the other three. “That’s Astrid, Lukas, and Julia. We met on our way here.”
The Sheriff looks them over, then says, “Good. If you’re looking for a family member you can’t recognize, we’ve set up a ledger in the kitchen. Just tell my... my wife your name and who you’re looking for, and she’ll tell you if anyone’s looking for you. Everyone’s in shock. No one knows what’s going on and there's even one kobold guy who speaks some weird foreign language unlike anything I've ever heard before.”
Astrid notices that saying ‘my wife’ seemed to almost cause the other elf physical pain. She wonders why.
Noah asks, “What do you mean? Like a foreign language or an alien language?”
The Sheriff waves the question away. “I have no idea. Anyway, we have more important things to worry about. Follow me upstairs.”
While Noah climbs the stairs to the first floor with the Sheriff, Astrid hurries into the kitchen. With any luck, her parents and brother will be here too.
There are a few people in the kitchen. Astrid spots the woman she assumes to be the Sheriff's wife: a slightly overweight woman sitting in a chair behind a table. She looks relatively old, about in her late fifties. Much older than what the Sheriff seems to be, but maybe elves don’t age, or the Sheriff simply got a younger body. The Sheriff’s wife also looks extremely grumpy. In front of her lies a pad of paper, which Astrid assumes is the list of names of everyone here.
The woman looks up as Astrid approaches. Before she can say anything, Astrid quickly says, “I’m Astrid Turm. I’m looking for my parents, Delila and Frank Turm, and my brothers, Elijah and Kilian Turm.”
The woman nods and flips a page on the notepad in front of her. She moves down the list with her finger, quietly repeating Astrid’s last name. After a moment she looks back up and says, “Sorry, but I don’t have anyone with that last name. I’ll write you down though. Maybe your parents will come along later.”
Astrid’s shoulders sink. “Thanks,” she tells the woman. As she turns around to head for the living room, Astrid thinks, ‘Of course it couldn’t be that easy. It’s not like this whole situation is bad enough already. I couldn’t just find everyone here.’
She’s distracted from her dark thoughts as she enters the large living room. A fireplace provides flickering orange light to the people sitting in every available spot. What immediately catches her eye is the massive shape taking up part of the room.
The huge man sits with his back against the wall. Even though he’s sitting, his head is almost touching the ceiling. Astrid wonders how he managed to fit through the door.
His body looks slightly disproportionate. Especially his legs look too thick for the rest of him. Most of his back and shoulders are covered in brown fur, and two horns adorn his head. They grow in a way that they meet at the top of his forehead to form something of a shield of horn and then curve out and upwards like buffalo horns. A large blanket covers his private parts. His skin is dark brown, like it’s made of leather, and his burly face is contorted into a grimace. Every few seconds the giant lets out a deep moan. If it weren't for the woman comforting him, Astrid wouldn't even have realized he was crying.
Her attention is drawn away from the giant by a small man walking up to her. He’s exactly as big as Noah, but his fur is a bit brighter and striped. His furry face is difficult for Astrid to read, but he looks dead serious as he asks her, “Faux mc-nerdi hera?”
Astrid is taken aback by the wall of gibberish thrown at her. From her clueless expression, the kobold gleans she has no idea what he just said.
“Dunom-bre.” He grimaces, curses in a foreign language, and walks away.
“What was that?” Astrid asks, more to herself than anyone else.
“That guy doesn’t speak our language. He’s tried talking to everyone here, but no one understands him.” A young man tells her the obvious. He’s still a normal human. A rather tall and muscular human with dark-brown hair. His brown warning vest jacket and the rifle identify him as one of the hunters. Even though his clothes look pretty ridiculous, he is rather handsome. His dark green eyes seem to sparkle in the firelight.
Astrid wonders why anyone would wear a brown warning vest. It kind of seems like it would defeat the purpose, but she figures it must be a hunter thing.
She sits down next to him and says, “Obviously, but what language is he speaking and why can’t he speak ours?”
“Well, your body got changed. Maybe his brain got changed too. Or he's an alien that got transported here,” the young man theorizes.
While both ideas sound absurd, neither seems too unlikely considering all the other things that have happened today. Astrid replies, “I'd say he's just some tourist from China who doesn't speak our language, or he's playing a prank on us, and he's just blabbering gibberish.”
The young man smiles. “Maybe. At any rate, it’s not Chinese he's speaking. By the way, I'm Fynn.”
“I'm Astrid.”
He leans back in his chair. “So Astrid, what does it feel like to be an elf?”
She considers the question. Everything about her feels different, but finding the words to describe how it's different is almost impossible. “It's hard to describe, but it's like I'm much more awake and strong. Living things also seem to be highlighted by a red glow, while some colors seem off. Also, I’m always hungry. That reminds me, is there anything to eat here?”
He smirks. “I try not to show it, but I'm way too freaked out to eat. I mean, I didn’t get changed as much as you, but I suddenly have the physique of a world-class athlete. I mean I was buff before but… Anyway, maybe you can ask the woman in the kitchen if she has anything.”
The loud voice of the Sheriff cuts through the chatter like a knife. “Everyone, listen up.”
Astrid, who was about to get up, sits back down to listen to her announcement.
The Sheriff waits for everyone to pay attention, then continues: “I know this is a very difficult situation, especially for those who have received major transformed. But we need to stay calm. My neighbors and I have talked, and there are enough beds and couches between our houses so that no one, except the giant, will have to sleep on the floor. We've divided everyone up, so once I'm done here, head to my wife, and she'll tell you where to go. Tomorrow, at first light, we'll all meet in the middle of the road between our houses. Everyone got that?”
The room mutters in agreement.
“Good. Now, I know that most of you are probably hungry, but we don't have enough in our house for everyone. So only children and the elderly will get dinner.”
Disappointed mumbling accompanies the Sheriff as she leaves.
Astrid, along with everyone else, shuffles to the kitchen to be told where to go.
As it turns out, she's not going to sleep in this house, but on a couch in the one across the street. Since the children and elderly will be having their dinner in the large house soon, and since she doesn't really feel like torturing herself by sitting one room away from a meal, she decides to just go to sleep.
She steps outside and takes a quick look to the left and right. The forest on either side looks like a wall of pure darkness. Clouds block out both the moon and the stars, leaving the fire behind her the only source of light. A breeze rustles the leaves, but aside from that, the night is silent.
To Astrid, nearby objects are revealed by their red outlines, but the effect doesn’t seem to extend far. The red part of her vision only seems to work at a relatively close range, and everything further than a few paces away is lost to the darkness.
She never used to fear the dark, but now she’s terrified of what might be hiding right outside her sight.
She races across the street and pounds against the door. An elderly woman carrying a flashlight answers and allows Astrid inside.
This house is even darker than the other one, and silent. Astrid isn't surprised. Most people are here with their families. If hers were here, she'd probably be talking to her father, assuring her mother that she's fine, and comforting her younger brother.
They’re not with her though.
“Is everything all right?” the old woman asks.
Astrid snaps out of her thoughts and replies, “Yes, it’s just… This whole thing is so unreal. I’m a completely different person, my family disappeared during the fog, and now I’m here. Alone.”
The woman sits down on a chair next to the door and says, “I can’t imagine what it must be like to be suddenly turned into something else. If you want to talk about it, I don’t have anything else to do but sit here.”
Astrid considers her offer. A part of her that she has just now realized exists wants to talk about all the strange things that have happened today. Another part of her just wants to pretend everything’s fine and go to sleep.
She sits down on the floor across the old woman and starts: “It’s just that… it’s all so different. We were on a trip to my grandparents’ and next thing I know I wake up as something different and almost get killed on three different occasions, but that’s not even the worst part. You know what is?” Astrid doesn’t wait for a reply. “It’s that it feels as though the very way I think has been altered. Instead of fear, I feel rage… or something like it.”
“What do you mean?” the woman asks.
“I was threatened with a gun by a policewoman. Instead of feeling scared, I immediately got the urge to attack her. When we saw a corpse getting devoured by birds, I snatched one and broke its neck with my bare hands.”
“So, you think that new body of yours is making you aggressive?”
Astrid tries to turn her concerns into words. “Yes, but it’s more than that. I’m not sure I’m still myself. I’m always hungry, living things are marked as bright red, and I feel like I get angry way too fast.”
“You can still control yourself though. After all, you're not attacking me, are you,” the woman tells her.
“No, but when I crushed the bird, I didn't even consider stopping. If I get mad at someone and attack them, I might not even consider it to be wrong. I have no idea how this body influences my perception. I just know that it does. That's the problem.”
“I see. Some things might have changed about you, but the very fact that you think something is wrong means you’re still in full control of yourself. Just because you killed a bird doesn't mean you'd do the same to a human. Maybe it's also a blessing. From what I heard, there are things out there now that would make grown men wet their pants. Maybe a good deal of natural courage is what you need to survive.”
The woman’s reasoning seems to make sense. Especially considering Astrid wants to believe that it does.
The young elf stands up. “Thank you. Could you show me where I can sleep?"
“Of course. Just go into the living room. I’ve prepared the couch for you.” The old woman looks as though she wants to say something else but seems to think better of it. Then someone else knocks on the door.
While getting ready for bed, Astrid is surprised to find there's still running water, even though the lights won't go on. As she lies down on the couch prepared for her, more people enter the house. They stomp around for what seems like forever. When they eventually stop, she’s finally able to close her eyes and put this horrible day behind her.